Ostentatious

adjective

/ˌɒstɛnˈteɪʃəs/

Characterized by a vulgar or pretentious display designed to impress or attract notice; marked by conspicuous, showy and often gaudy extravagance intended to flaunt wealth, status or importance.

✍️ Usage in a UPSC answer

A welfare state must guard against ostentatious tokenism, where lavishly inaugurated schemes serve more to burnish the image of the ruling dispensation than to deliver measurable relief to the marginalised.

Synonyms

showyflamboyantflashypretentiousgaudyconspicuous

Antonyms

unostentatiousmodestrestrainedunderstated

🌱 Word Family

ostentatiously (adv), ostentation (n), ostentatiousness (n), ostentate (v, rare)

🔡 Root

Latin ob- = towards; tendere = to stretch → ostentare = to display; -ious = adjectival suffix

📜 Etymology

From Latin ostentare 'to display, show off' (frequentative of ostendere 'to show', from ob- 'towards' + tendere 'to stretch'), via the stem ostentat- plus the suffix -ious; first attested in English in the 1590s.

🧠 Memory Hook

Root link: Latin "ostendere" = "to show" (think "OST-ENTATIOUS" -> "ostend / extend to view"). Picture someone who must OSTEND (show off) everything they own.

👥 Society 📖 Seen in: Salient Features of Indian Society — D...

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