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supercilious
adjective
Did you know?
What is the origin of supercilious?
Arrogant and disdainful types tend to raise an eyebrow at anything they consider beneath them. The original supercilious crowd must have shown that raised-eyebrow look often, because the adjective supercilious derives from "supercilium," Latin for eyebrow. (We plucked our adjective and its meaning from the Latin adjective superciliosus.) "Supercilious" has been used to describe the censoriously overbearing since the late 1600s, but there was a time in the 1700s when it was also used as a synonym of another "supercilium" descendent, "superciliary" ("of, relating to, or adjoining the eyebrow"). Although the eyebrow sense of "supercilious" is now obsolete, it does help explain what ornithologist John Latham meant in 1782 when he described a "Supercilious K[ingfisher]" with a narrow orange stripe over its eyes.
Synonyms
- arrogant
- assumptive
- bumptious
- cavalier
- chesty
- haughty
- high-and-mighty
- high-handed
- high-hat
- highfalutin
- hifalutin
- huffish
- huffy
- imperious
- important
- lofty
- lordly
- masterful
- overweening
- peremptory
- pompous
- presuming
- presumptuous
- pretentious
- self-asserting
- self-assertive
- sniffy
- stiff-necked
- superior
- toplofty
- toploftical
- uppish
- uppity
proud, arrogant, haughty, lordly, insolent, overbearing, supercilious, disdainful mean showing scorn for inferiors.
proud may suggest an assumed superiority or loftiness.
arrogant implies a claiming for oneself of more consideration or importance than is warranted.
haughty suggests a consciousness of superior birth or position.
lordly implies pomposity or an arrogant display of power.
insolent implies contemptuous haughtiness.
overbearing suggests a tyrannical manner or an intolerable insolence.
supercilious implies a cool, patronizing haughtiness.
disdainful suggests a more active and openly scornful superciliousness.
Examples of supercilious in a Sentence
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'supercilious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Supercilious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/supercilious. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
Kids Definition
supercilious
adjective
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