meretricious

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derived from Latin meretrix 'prostitute', means 'showily but falsely attractive':

She could view with contempt those of her fellow tourists who, after the Aegean, could excite themselves over the meretricious charms of Venice—Robert Liddell, 1986.

It should not be confused with meritorious and other words connected with merit.

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Meretricious is a word that means the opposite of what it sounds like — it's all about appearances but lacks any real "merit." Columnist George F. Will used it recently to describe an old WWII-era Japanese canard:

"The museum adjacent to Yasukuni says 'The Greater East Asian War' began because, when the New Deal failed to banish the Depression, 'the only option open to Roosevelt... was to use embargoes to force resource-poor Japan into war. The U.S. economy made a complete recovery once the Americans entered the war.' That is disgracefully meretricious..."

Link: The Uneasy Sleep of Japan's Dead

Posted August 21, 2006.

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

adjective

Tastelessly showy: brummagem, chintzy, flashy, garish, gaudy, glaring, loud, tawdry, tinsel. Informal tacky². See style/good style/bad style.

adj

Definition: gaudy, flashy
Antonyms: genuine, real, undecorated, unembellished

[fr. L. meretrix - a prostitute]
1) of or relating to a prostitute : having the nature of prostitution  <meretricious relationship>
2) tawdrily and falsely attractive  <meretricious trash>; pretentious

IN BRIEF: Attractive on the surface but of little value.

At first I thought the ideas in the speech were great, but then I looked into them and found them to be meretricious and unworkable.

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For a list of words related to meretricious, see:

• Unappealing, Shabby, Messy, Poor, or Clumsy
• Vulgar, Rude, Degenerate, or Wild

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See words rhyming with "meretricious."

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - forloren, overlæsset, prangende, tarvelig

Nederlands (Dutch)
betreffende prostitutie, smakeloos, pretentieus

Français (French)
adj. - factice, clinquant

Deutsch (German)
adj. - trügerisch

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - ψευδεπίγραφος

Italiano (Italian)
di meretrice, pomposo

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - vulgar

Русский (Russian)
показной, распутный

Español (Spanish)
adj. - de oropel, rimbombante, engañoso, ampuloso, meretricio

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - grann, prålig, falsk

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
华丽而庸俗的, 娼妓的, 俗气的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 華麗而庸俗的, 娼妓的, 俗氣的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 저속한, 진짜 같은, 야한

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 見せかけだけの, けばけばしい, 俗悪な, みだらな

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) (أسلوب) مبهرج زائف‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮צעקני, מרשים כלפי חוץ, מזוייף, חסר ערך‬

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