bombastic

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /bɑmˈbæstɪk/ UK /bɒmˈbæstɪk/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
high-sounding but with little meaning; inflated in style

The senator's bombastic speech promised everything and pledged nothing.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · high-sounding but with... pompous grandiloquent inflated turgid grandiosehigh-flownverbose pretentious

Opposites

plain unpretentious modest laconic succinct

Word family

Derived forms bombastically

Related forms bombast

Simplified etymology

Bombastic comes from bombast, which originally referred to raw cotton or cotton wool used as padding. Bombast comes from Old French bombace, through medieval Latin bombax, an alteration of bombyx, meaning “silk.” Bombastic later came to describe high-sounding language with little meaning.

Etymology

From bombast ('cotton padding; inflated speech') + -ic. Bombast comes from Old French bombace ('cotton wadding'), from Late Latin bombax ('cotton'), an alteration of Latin bombyx ('silk, silkworm'), from Ancient Greek bombyx.

bombace Old French bombyx Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# bombastic

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /bɑmˈbæstɪk/
**IPA (UK):** /bɒmˈbæstɪk/

## Meanings
1. high-sounding but with little meaning; inflated in style

## Examples
- The senator's bombastic speech promised everything and pledged nothing.

## Synonyms
- pompous
- grandiloquent
- inflated
- turgid
- grandiose
- high-flown
- verbose
- pretentious

## Antonyms
- plain
- unpretentious
- modest
- laconic
- succinct

## Derived Forms
- bombastically

## Related Forms
- bombast

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: bombace
- Root: bombyx

## Etymology
From bombast ('cotton padding; inflated speech') + -ic. Bombast comes from Old French bombace ('cotton wadding'), from Late Latin bombax ('cotton'), an alteration of Latin bombyx ('silk, silkworm'), from Ancient Greek bombyx.

## AI Etymology
Bombastic comes from bombast ('cotton padding; inflated speech') + -ic. Bombast comes from Old French bombace ('cotton wadding'), from Late Latin bombax ('cotton'), an alteration of Latin bombyx ('silk, silkworm'), from Ancient Greek bombyx. The historical trail runs through Old French bombace, Latin bombyx and Ancient Greek bombyx. Morphologically, the surface form is analyzable into prefixes, suffixes, compounds, or participial endings that carry part of the history. In modern use it means high-sounding but with little meaning; inflated in style. Derived formations include bombastically; related forms include bombast.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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