Standard Lemma guide

supercilious

adj · 3 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: /ˌsuː.pəˈsɪ.li.əs/
  • General-American: /ˌsu.pɚˈsɪ.li.əs/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɪliəs
  • CMU ARPABET: S UW2 P ER0 S IH1 L IY0 AH0 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Arrogantly superior; showing contemptuous indifference; haughty.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: airy, arrogant, chesty, authoritarian, biggity, big-headed, blustery, boastful, lordly, bombastic, buggish, cocky, conceited, disdainful, domineering, egotistical, entitled, flatulent, flaunting, full of oneself, glorious, grandiose, hankty, haught, haughty, haut, high-handed, high-hat, high and mighty, highfalutin, hoity-toity, holier-than-thou, hubristic, hubristical, imperious, inflated, insolent, la-di-da, orgulous, ostentatious, overbearing, overweening, pompous, presumptuous, pretentious, priggish, puffed up, sanctimonious, self-important, snobbish, snooty, snotty, stout, stuck up, supercilious, thrasonic, thrasonical, toploftical, toplofty, tumid, turgid, uppish, uppity, uppy, upstage, vain

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective satellite

Meaning 2

expressive of contempt

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • curled his lip in a supercilious smile
  • spoke in a sneering jeering manner
  • makes many a sharp comparison but never a mean or snide one

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: sneering, snide

Antonyms: none provided

3

adjective satellite

Meaning 3

having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy- W.L.Shirer

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • some economists are disdainful of their colleagues in other social disciplines
  • haughty aristocrats
  • his lordly manners were offensive
  • walked with a prideful swagger
  • very sniffy about breaches of etiquette
  • his mother eyed my clothes with a supercilious air
  • a more swaggering mood than usual

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: disdainful, haughty, imperious, lordly, overbearing, prideful, sniffy, swaggering

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin superciliōsus (“haughty”).

Across languages

Translations

49 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Old Armenian: հպարտ (hpart) — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Old Armenian: սէգ (sēg) — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Bulgarian: арога́нтен (arogánten) — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Bulgarian: високоме́рен (visokoméren) — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Bulgarian: надме́нен (nadménen) — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Chinese Mandarin: 傲慢 (àomàn) — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Chinese Mandarin: 高傲 (gāo'ào) — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Chinese Mandarin: 驕傲 /骄傲 (jiāo'ào) — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Dutch: hooghartig — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Dutch: denigrerend — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Dutch: hautain — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Dutch: verwaand — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Dutch: hoogmoedig — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Dutch: aanmatigend — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Dutch: hoogneuzig — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Dutch: arrogant — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Finnish: ylenkatseellinen — showing contemptuous indifference
  • French: hautain — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Galician: altivo — showing contemptuous indifference
  • German: arrogant — showing contemptuous indifference
  • German: hochmütig — showing contemptuous indifference
  • German: hochnäsig — showing contemptuous indifference
  • German: anmaßend — showing contemptuous indifference
  • German: herablassend — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Greek: υπεροπτικός (yperoptikós) — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Greek: υπερφίαλος (yperfíalos) — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Ido: superba — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Irish: mórtasach — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Italian: altezzoso — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Italian: sdegnoso — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Latin: superbus — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Latin: superciliōsus — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Lithuanian: pasikėlęs — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Macedonian: на́дмен (nádmen) — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Norwegian: hovmodig — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Polish: wyniosły — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Polish: zarozumiały — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Portuguese: supercilioso — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Portuguese: altivo — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Portuguese: soberbo — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Russian: надме́нный (nadménnyj) — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Russian: высокоме́рный (vysokomérnyj) — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Scottish Gaelic: àrdanach — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Sicilian: sticchiuni — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Sicilian: sticchiusu — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Spanish: altivo — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Swedish: högdragen — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Swedish: högfärdig — showing contemptuous indifference
  • Ottoman Turkish: بورونلو (burunlu) — showing contemptuous indifference