sententious

English

WOTD – 2 December 2009, 2 December 2010

Etymology

From Latin sententiōsus, from sententia (“opinion, purpose”).

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɛnˈtɛn.ʃəs/
• Hyphenation: sen‧ten‧tious

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

sententious (comparative more sententious, superlative most sententious)

1. Using as few words as possible; pithy and concise.
2. Tending to use aphorisms or maxims; especially, to such an extent as to engage in trite moralizing, even self-righteously so.

   His sententious remarks quickly bored the audience.

3. (obsolete) Full of meaning.

Synonyms

• (using as few words as possible): concise, pithy
• (tending to use aphorisms): aphoristic

Derived terms

• sententiosity
• sententiously
• sententiousness

Related terms

• sentential

Translations

obsolete: full of meaning

using as few words as possible

Dutch: kernachtig (nl) Finnish: ytimekäs (fi), niukkasanainen, lyhytsanainen, tiivis (fi) French: concis (fr), laconique (fr), succint (fr) Italian: conciso (it), succinto (it), laconico (it) Russian: афористи́чный (ru) (aforistíčnyj), кра́ткий (ru) (krátkij), сжатый (ru) (sžatyj), лаконичный (ru) (lakoničnyj) Spanish: conciso (es), lacónico (es), sucinto (es) Swedish: kärnfull (sv), koncis (sv) Tibetan: ཚིག་ཉུང་དོན་བསྡུས་པ (tshig nyung don bsdus pa), ཚིག་ཉུང་དོན་ཚང (tshig nyung don tshang)

tending to use aphorisms or maxims

Bulgarian: афористичен (bg) (aforističen) Dutch: moraliserend (nl) French: sentencieux (fr), pédant (fr), pontifiant (fr) Greek: αποφθεγματικός (el) (apofthegmatikós) Ancient Greek: ἀποφθεγματικός (apophthegmatikós) Russian: нравоучительный (ru) (nravoučitelʹnyj); менторский (ru) (mentorskij), сентенциозный (ru) (sentencioznyj) Spanish: sentencioso Swedish: moraliserande (sv), aforistisk (sv), förnumstig (sv)