bumptious
bump·tious/ˈbʌmpʃəs/adjective
bumptious is spelled B-U-M-P-T-I-O-U-S: 9 letters and 2 syllables (bump·tious). It appears about once in every 30 million words in written English, the 165,739th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, bumptious means “Obtrusively pushy; self-important; self-assertive to a pretentious extreme” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in bumptious?
| Letters | 9: B-U-M-P-T-I-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: bump·tious |
| In writing | about once in every 30 million words; the 165,739th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is bumptious?
Bumptious appears about once in every 30 million words in written English, the 165,739th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce bumptious?
- /ˈbʌmpʃəs/
Bumptious has 2 syllables, split bump·tious in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-bumptious.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of bumptious
- more bumptious comparative
- most bumptious superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does bumptious mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
UKObtrusively pushy; self-important; self-assertive to a pretentious extreme.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Bumptious in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense obtrusively pushy:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | wichtigtuerisch, prätentiös, selbsteingenommen, anmaßend, aufgeblasen, überkandidelt |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does bumptious come from?
Probably from bump, on the pattern of words like fractious or presumptious.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).