Revised 2004
ostentatiousadjective
Factsheet
What does the adjective ostentatious mean?
There are three meanings listed in OED's entry for the adjective ostentatious. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.
How common is the adjective ostentatious?
About 0.8occurrences per million words in modern written English
| 1750 | 1.9 |
| 1760 | 2.5 |
| 1770 | 2.8 |
| 1780 | 3.2 |
| 1790 | 3.5 |
| 1800 | 3.6 |
| 1810 | 3.3 |
| 1820 | 2.9 |
| 1830 | 2.6 |
| 1840 | 2.4 |
| 1850 | 2.1 |
| 1860 | 1.9 |
| 1870 | 1.8 |
| 1880 | 1.6 |
| 1890 | 1.4 |
| 1900 | 1.2 |
| 1910 | 1.1 |
| 1920 | 1.0 |
| 1930 | 0.92 |
| 1940 | 0.92 |
| 1950 | 0.89 |
| 1960 | 0.83 |
| 1970 | 0.8 |
| 1980 | 0.78 |
| 1990 | 0.75 |
| 2000 | 0.73 |
| 2010 | 0.74 |
How is the adjective ostentatious pronounced?
British English
/ˌɒstɛnˈteɪʃəs/
oss-ten-TAY-shuhss
/ˌɒst(ə)nˈteɪʃəs/
oss-tuhn-TAY-shuhss
U.S. English
/ˌɑst(ə)nˈteɪʃəs/
ah-stuhn-TAY-shuhss
Where does the adjective ostentatious come from?
Earliest known use
late 1500s
The earliest known use of the adjective ostentatious is in the late 1500s.
OED's earliest evidence for ostentatious is from 1590, in the writing of William Segar, herald.
ostentatious is a borrowing from Latin, combined with an English element.
Etymons: Latin ostentāt-, ostentāre, -ious suffix.
Nearby entries
- ostensor, n.1804
- ostensorio, n.1722
- ostensorium, n.1758–
- ostensory, n.1787–
- ostent, n.¹1570–
- ostent, n.²1600–
- ostent, v.1531–1650
- ostentate, adj.1615
- ostentate, v.c1540–
- ostentation, n.a1450–
- ostentatious, adj.1590–
- ostentatiously, adv.1671–
- ostentatiousness, n.1658–
- ostentative, adj.1601–
- ostentatively, adv.a1658–68
- ostentator, n.1611–42
- ostentatory, adj.1638–
- ostentatrix, n.1611
- ostentful, adj.1608–15
- ostential, adj.1609
- ostentiferous, adj.1656
Meaning & use
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Pronunciation
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Forms
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Frequency
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Compounds & derived words
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Entry history for ostentatious, adj.
ostentatious, adj. was revised in September 2004
ostentatious, adj. was last modified in July 2023
oed.com is a living text, updated every three months. Modifications may include:
- further revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
- new senses, phrases, and quotations.
Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into ostentatious, adj. in July 2023.
Earlier versions of ostentatious, adj. were published in:
OED First Edition (1903)
OED Second Edition (1989)
Cite
Chicago
Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “”, . <>
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MLA9
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