bombast

(bŏm'băst')
n.
Grandiloquent, pompous speech or writing.

[Alteration of obsolete bombace, cotton padding, from Old French, from Medieval Latin bombax, bombac-, cotton. See bombazine.]

bombaster bom'bast'er n.
bombastic bom·bas'tic adj.
bombastically bom·bas'ti·cal·ly adv.

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noun

Pretentious, pompous speech or writing: claptrap, fustian, grandiloquence, magniloquence, orotundity, rant, turgidity. See plain/fancy, style/good style/bad style, words.

n

Definition: bluster, pomposity
Antonyms: plain speaking

bombast, extravagantly inflated and grandiloquent diction, disproportionate to its subject. It was a common feature of English drama of Shakespeare's age, and of later heroic drama. Marlowe is known especially for the bombastic ranting of his Tamburlaine the Great (1590):

Our quivering lances, shaking in the air,
And bullets, like Jove's dreadful thunderbolts,
Enroll'd in flames and fiery smouldering mists,
Shall threat the gods more than Cyclopean wars;
And with our sun‐bright armour, as we march,
We'll chase the stars from heaven, and dim their eyes
That stand and muse at our admired arms.

See also fustian, hyperbole, rodomontade.

For a list of words related to bombast, see:

• Devices, Techniques, and Elements - bombast: inflated, extravagant expression
• Rhetoric and Figures of Speech - bombast: inflated, grandiloquent language

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See words rhyming with "bombast."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Bombast.

Dansk (Danish)
n. - ordskvalder, svulstighed

Nederlands (Dutch)
bombast, pompeus gepraat

Français (French)
n. - grandiloquence, boursouflure

Deutsch (German)
n. - Bombast, Schwulst

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - στόμφος, πομπώδες ύφος

Italiano (Italian)
ampollosità

Português (Portuguese)
n. - linguagem (f) bombástica

Русский (Russian)
высокопарность, напыщенность

Español (Spanish)
n. - rimbombancia, altisonancia, ampulosidad

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - bombasmer, svulstigheter

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
夸大的言辞

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 誇大的言辭

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 호언 장담, 심

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 大言壮語, 豪語

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) كلام أجوف‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מליצות נבובות‬

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