Standard Lemma guide

ostent

noun · verb · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ɒˈstɛnt/
  • General-American: /ɑˈstɛnt/
  • General-American: /ə-/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈɒstɛnt/
  • General-American: /ˈɑstɛnt/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A display, an exhibition; an appearance, a manifestation.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, rare

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A boastful, ostentatious display or exhibition.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A portent, a token.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, rare

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

One sixtieth of an hour: a minute (60 seconds).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: historical, obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

verb

Meaning 5

To make an ambitious display of; to exhibit or show boastingly; to ostentate.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: ambitransitive, obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: demonstrate, display, ostentate, manifest, exhibitionize, preen, strut, aura farm, boulevardier, cut a wide swath, cut it fat, cut round, figure away, flamboast, flaunt, flex, floss, fluff one's feathers, gallery, high-side, let one's nuts hang, ostent, showboat, show away, show off, strut one's stuff, stunt, swag it out, swagger, swank, three-sheet, venditate, yaya

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Latin ostentus (“a display, exhibition, show”), from ostendere (“to exhibit, show”); see further at etymology 1.

From Middle French ostente (“amazing or marvellous thing; prodigy, wonder”) or directly from its etymon Latin ostentum (“portent”), from ostendere (“to exhibit, show”); see further at etymology 1. The plural form ostenta is from Latin ostenta.

Perhaps from Latin ostentum.

From Middle French ostenter (“to make an ostentatious display of”), or directly from its etymon Latin ostentāre (“to exhibit, present, show; to show off”), frequentative of ostendere (“to exhibit, show”), from ob- (prefix meaning ‘against; towards’) + tendere (“to extend, stretch; to distend”) (from Proto-Indo-European *tend- (“to extend, stretch”)). Doublet of ostentate.