Meaning & use
supercilious
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Meaning
adjectivecomparabledisapprovingformal
Acting as if you are better than other people, usually shown by a cold, scornful look or tone.
Grammar: Describes people, looks and remarks: a supercilious waiter, a supercilious smile.
Patterns
- a supercilious look
- supercilious about something
The supercilious waiter looked down his nose at our order.
She gave the new student a supercilious smile and turned away.
His supercilious tone made everyone in the room feel small.
Word forms
| comparative | more supercilious |
|---|---|
| superlative | most supercilious |
Common combinations
- supercilious smile
- He wore a supercilious smile throughout the debate.
- supercilious tone
- She answered in a supercilious tone that annoyed the audience.
- supercilious manner
- The clerk's supercilious manner discouraged customers.
- supercilious glance
- A supercilious glance was all he gave my old coat.
- supercilious attitude
- Their supercilious attitude toward newcomers hurt the club.
Synonyms and how they differ
- haughty
- Haughty describes a proud person who acts superior in general, while supercilious focuses on the scornful look or tone.
- condescending
- Condescending suggests talking down to someone as if they were less capable, which is narrower than supercilious.
- arrogant
- Arrogant is a plain, common word for overrating yourself, whereas supercilious is rarer and more about visible contempt.
- disdainful
- Disdainful stresses a feeling that something is unworthy, and it need not include an air of personal superiority.
Opposites
Word family
- superciliously adverb
- in a scornful, superior way
- superciliousness noun
- the quality of acting superior and scornful
- supercilium noun
- the eyebrow, from the Latin source of the word
Commonly confused: supercilious or superficial?
supercilious vs superficial
Superficial means shallow or on the surface. Supercilious means scornfully superior, so the two are unrelated in meaning.
Practice
The shop assistant's ___ sneer told us she thought we could not afford anything there.
Choose one answer.
A scornful sneer that shows a sense of superiority is supercilious. 'Superficial' sounds similar but means shallow, and 'sympathetic' is the opposite of scornful.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “supercilious”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.