bombastic

/bɔm'bæstik/

Thân thiện

The speaker's bombastic rhetoric filled the grand hall.

Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Using language that is overly elaborate, pompous, or grand in a way that is intended to impress but often sounds insincere or empty: Describes speech or writing that is inflated, pretentious, and uses more words than necessary to sound important.
   • Characterized by a grandiose, high-flown style that lacks substance: Often implies that the style is more noticeable than the actual meaning or content.

Usage and Examples

• Adjective:
  • The politician's bombastic speech was full of impressive-sounding words but offered no concrete plans.
  • The reviewer criticized the novel for its bombastic prose, which made a simple story seem unnecessarily complicated.
  • He has a bombastic way of speaking that can be quite off-putting in casual conversation.

Advanced Usage and Nuances

• Contextual Usage: "Bombastic" is almost always used in a critical or negative sense. It highlights a disconnect between the elaborate style and the trivial or absent substance.
  • The CEO's bombastic announcement about "paradigm-shifting synergies" was just a cover for laying off staff.
• Rhetorical Effect: It can describe language meant to evoke grandeur or importance, but which fails to do so convincingly.
  • The epic film was undermined by its bombastic and unconvincing dialogue.

Variants and Related Words

• Bombast (noun): The grand but empty language itself.
  • His writing is mere bombast, devoid of real insight.
• Bombastically (adverb): In a bombastic manner.
  • He spoke bombastically about his minor achievements.

Synonyms

• Grandiloquent: Using lofty, high-flown language.
• Turgid: Swollen and complex in style; overly ornate.
• Orotund: (Of speech or writing) pompous; pretentious.
• Highfalutin: (Informal) pretentious or pompous.
• Magniloquent: Using high-flown or bombastic language.

Antonyms

• Plainspoken: Speaking in a simple, direct manner.
• Unadorned: Not decorated or elaborate; simple.
• Laconic: Using very few words.
• Succinct: Briefly and clearly expressed.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing: This Shakespearean phrase (from ) perfectly captures the essence of bombastic language—lots of noise and drama but no real meaning. While not an idiom with "bombastic," it is a classic description of the concept.
  • The debate was full of sound and fury, signifying nothing—just bombastic claims from both sides.

Học thuật

Adjective

1. ostentatiously lofty in style
   • a man given to large talk
   • tumid political prose

Từ đồng nghĩa

• declamatory
• large
• orotund
• tumid
• turgid