FANCY-PANTS Synonyms: 47 Similar and Opposite Words

fancy-pants

adjective

Definition of fancy-pants

as in pretentious

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of fancy-pants To my surprise and delight, what came out of the blender was a fancy-pants chocolate mousse that could be served at any chic Brooklyn bistro. — Jesse Szewczyk, Bon Appetit Magazine, 14 June 2026 Hotel-wise, the best place to be is either Kinloch Lodge, for belt-loosening cuisine and sing-worthy service, or Flodigarry Hotel, an off-compass outpost with a fancy-pants design bar and suites that wouldn’t look out of place in the Maldives. — Mike MacEacheran, Condé Nast Traveler, 8 Sep. 2025 Partridge was dressed in classic English fancy-pants style, while Rodrigo embraced the vintage preppiness inherent to gingham. — Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 2 July 2025 The surprise of Clover Hill is not that this sort of food is on offer in an outer borough—with its concentration of zillion-dollar brownstones and fancy-pants residents, Brooklyn Heights isn’t exactly salt of the earth. — Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, 21 July 2024

Recent Examples of Synonyms for fancy-pants

Adjective

More than a little pretentious, with all the resources a $5 trillion market cap can bring to bear on every problem.

— Aurich Lawson, ArsTechnica, 21 Oct. 2026
But others have slammed the effort as a pretentious and obnoxious slog.

— James Hibberd, HollywoodReporter, 30 Sep. 2026

Definition of pretentious

Adjective

At the end of the day, and of his essay, Thiel’s grandiose language and project is shown to be a rather ordinary ideological one.

— David Gibson, The Verge, 20 Oct. 2026
The grandiose panic room where Kate and Hal are locked down after the shooting was filmed in the crypt of a church on the Upper West Side.

— Emily Zemler, Condé Nast Traveler, 16 Oct. 2026

Definition of grandiose

Adjective

Instead, just enjoy the whacking of the pompous, the powerful and parents — that’s what Stone and Parker do.

— Dominic Patten, Deadline, 16 Sep. 2026
Symptoms include baby fever, exacerbated by the pregnancy announcement of her sister Macy (Zosia Mamet), and an intolerance to her pompous, long-term but non-committal boyfriend Spencer (Finn Wittrock).

— Katie Walsh, Variety, 14 Sep. 2026

Definition of pompous

Adjective

The boxes allegedly cost substantially less to produce, allowing the conspirators to use the inflated prices to finance bribes and divert government funds.

— Antonio María Delgado, Miami Herald, 12 Oct. 2026
As a result, conventional estimates produced inflated efficiency values that failed to reflect actual device behavior under operating conditions.

— Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 8 Oct. 2026

Definition of inflated

Adjective

In a flatbed truck adorned with SEIU banners and purple and yellow pennants, union leaders addressed a crowd of thousands.

— Graham Womack, Sacbee.com, 21 Oct. 2026
Fitzpatrick has represented the politically purple region for nearly a decade, with deep family ties to the area.

— Dan Snyder, CBS News, 21 Oct. 2026

Definition of purple

Adjective

On arrival, we were escorted across a wooden bridge to the famous ornate jewel-laden golden door.

— Kate Berlant, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Oct. 2026
Next up is a house tour, from the cavernous, all-white living room to a glimpse of the ornate indoor pool, with V lamenting that the place is so huge he sometimes gets lost.

— Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 15 Oct. 2026

Definition of ornate

Adjective

The fiscal upshot would be to widen an already bloated deficit, leaving little room for the countercyclical spending the federal government used to contain the fallout from the 2008–9 global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

— NIALL FERGUSON, Foreign Affairs, 20 Oct. 2026
Lebanon’s state electricity company is one of the country’s biggest sources of debt, hemorrhaging about $40 billion over the past decades with a bloated workforce and outdated infrastructure.

— Bassem Mroue, Los Angeles Times, 16 Oct. 2026

Definition of bloated

Adjective

Staffers are unfailingly warm and helpful, while never seeming stiff or stilted.

— Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 June 2026
Tensions between Rian and Patrick flare when Rian drunkenly mentions a brief fling with Shiv, though the film’s clunky edit, which gives little room for the performances to breathe and play out organically within their contexts, makes these frictions feel stilted and juvenile.

— Beatrice Loayza, Variety, 22 May 2026

Definition of stilted

Browse Nearby Words

fancy men

fancy-pants

fancy up

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“Fancy-pants.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fancy-pants. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of fancy-pants

adjective

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