sententious

/sen'tenʃəs/

Thân thiện

The teacher offered a sententious remark about hard work.

Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Concise and full of meaning; expressing much in few words; pithy: The word "sententious" describes a style of speaking or writing that is brief, forceful, and packed with substance or wisdom.
   • Given to or abounding in aphoristic moralizing; inclined to make pompous or moralistic judgments: "Sententious" also describes a manner that is overly fond of making short, instructive statements, often in a self-important or moralizing way.

Usage Examples

• Adjective (Concise and meaningful):

  • The professor's sententious remarks on the subject clarified years of debate in a single sentence.
  • She is known for her sententious writing style, where every word carries significant weight.

• Adjective (Moralizing or pompous):

  • His sententious tone during the meeting annoyed those who felt he was lecturing them.
  • The editorial was criticized for being overly sententious, full of trite advice and simplistic judgments.

Advanced Usage

• Sententiousness (n): The quality of being sententious.

  • The sententiousness of his speech made it sound more like a sermon than a casual talk.

• Sententiously (adv): In a sententious manner.

  • He nodded sententiously, as if he had just revealed a great truth.

Variants and Related Words

• Aphoristic (adj): Relating to or containing aphorisms; concise and instructive.
  • Her aphoristic wisdom was similar to the sententious style of ancient philosophers.
• Pithy (adj): Concise and forcefully expressive. (This is a close synonym for the first meaning).
  • He offered a pithy summary of the complex issue.
• Moralistic (adj): Characterized by or expressive of a narrow moral attitude. (This relates to the second meaning).
  • The film avoided a moralistic, sententious ending.

Synonyms

• For the first meaning (concise): Pithy, terse, laconic, epigrammatic, succinct.
• For the second meaning (moralizing): Preachy, didactic, pontifical, sanctimonious.

Related Phrases and Idioms

• To be/look/sound sententious: To have or project a sententious manner.
  • Avoid sounding sententious when giving advice; it can put people off.
• A sententious air/manner: A demeanor that suggests one is making profound or moralistic statements.
  • He adopted a sententious air whenever discussing politics.

Học thuật

Adjective

1. concise and full of meaning
   • welcomed her pithy comments
   • the peculiarly sardonic and sententious style in which Don Luis composed his epigrams- Hervey Allen
2. abounding in or given to pompous or aphoristic moralizing
   • too often the significant episode deteriorates into sententious conversation- Kathleen Barnes

Từ đồng nghĩa

• pithy