pomposo

From Italian pomposo (“magnificent”). Doublet of pompous.

pomposo (comparative more pomposo, superlative most pomposo)

1. (music) Ceremonious and dignified.

pomposo (comparative more pomposo, superlative most pomposo)

1. (music) In a ceremonious and dignified manner.

pomposo (plural pomposos)

1. (slang, derogatory, dated) An arrogant, boastful or self-important person.
   • 1876, Bret Harte, The Poetical Works, Including the Drama of "The Two Men of Sandy Bar", page 414:

     I have heard that this pomposo, this braggart, is a Yankee trick too; that he has the front of a lion, the liver of the chicken.

   • 1912, Grant Richards, Caviare, page 186:

     After all, it isn't amusing for the grand seigneurs, the pomposos, of the art-dealing world to have their opinions first questioned and then disproved again and again by someone so much younger and, according to their standards, so much less equipped.

   • 1992, William F. Buckley, Windfall, The End of the Affair:

     The book's sheer joy lies in her hour-by-hour outwitting the young pomposo, resulting in a frustrated entry in his journal on Sunday morning.

• “pomposo”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

From Late Latin pompōsus.

• IPA^(key): /pomˈpo.zo/, (traditional) /pomˈpo.so/^[1]
• Rhymes: -ozo, (traditional) -oso
• Hyphenation: pom‧pó‧so

pomposo (feminine pomposa, masculine plural pomposi, feminine plural pompose)

1. magnificent, grand, stately
2. self-important, ostentatious, showy, pompous

• pomposamente

From Late Latin pompōsus.

• Hyphenation: pom‧po‧so

pomposo (feminine pomposa, masculine plural pomposos, feminine plural pomposas, metaphonic)

1. pompous (affectedly grand)

• pomposamente

• pompa

• “pomposo”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “pomposo”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from Late Latin pompōsus.

• IPA^(key): /pomˈposo/ [põmˈpo.so]

• Audio (El Salvador):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -oso
• Syllabification: pom‧po‧so

pomposo (feminine pomposa, masculine plural pomposos, feminine plural pomposas)

1. pompous, highfalutin

• “pomposo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025