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sententious

adjective/sɛnˈtɛnʃəs/

C2CEFR level
85/100Rarity: very rare
FormalRegister

Given to moralising in a pompous or affectedly wise manner.

She grew tired of his sententious remarks about the virtues of hard work.

Similar: moralistic, preachy, pontifical

Origin: From Latin sententiosus 'full of meaning', from sententia 'opinion, maxim'.

Topic: moralising in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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