ostentatious
/ˌɒs.tɛnˈteɪ.ʃəs/adjective
ostentatious is spelled O-S-T-E-N-T-A-T-I-O-U-S. The wrong spelling people search most is ostentacious: about 120 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 31 of all searches for the word. Ostentatious is an adjective meaning “Of ostentation”.
How many letters and syllables are in ostentatious?
| Letters | 12: O-S-T-E-N-T-A-T-I-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 42,680th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, ostentacious, about 120 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell ostentatious?
Ostentatious is spelled O-S-T-E-N-T-A-T-I-O-U-S. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 27 of the searches for ostentatious in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is ostentatious?
Ostentatious appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 42,680th 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 ostentatious?
- US /ˌɒs.tɛnˈteɪ.ʃəs/
- US /ˌɒs.tənˈteɪ.ʃəs/
Ostentatious has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-ostentatious.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with ostentatious?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as ostentatious from its last stressed vowel (/eɪʃəs/):
- tenacious
- audacious
- herbaceous
- efficacious
- rapacious
- sebaceous
- pugnacious
- loquacious
- perspicacious
- argillaceous
- contumacious
- pertinacious
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of ostentatious
- more ostentatious comparative
- most ostentatious superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ostentatious mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Of ostentation.
- 2
Intended to attract notice.
- 3
Of tawdry display; kitsch.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ostentatious in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | ostentatoire |
| German | protzig, prahlerisch, prunkhaft, prunkvoll, prahlend, protzend |
| Portuguese | ostentatório , ostentoso , espalhafatoso |
| Spanish | ostentoso, ostentatorio |
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 ostentatious come from?
Originated 1590; from Latin ostentātus + -ious.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).