grandiosity
Excessive self-regard
Grandiosity is an inflated sense of one's own importance, abilities, or status.
The word carries clinical weight in psychology, where it describes a symptom of conditions like narcissistic personality disorder or bipolar mania: His grandiosity made him believe he was destined for world leadership.
Outside clinical contexts, grandiosity suggests pretension or delusion—ambitions or self-assessments that exceed reality: The grandiosity of the plan was matched only by its eventual failure.
Ruinous excessive confidence
- egotismInflated sense of self-importance
- conceitExaggerated self-admiration
- self-importanceExaggerated sense of significance
- haughtinessDisdainful sense of superiority
pomposity · vanity · superciliousness · overconfidence · smugness · imperiousness · presumption · boastfulness
Obsession with one's importance
- narcissismExcessive admiration of oneself
- psychosisSevere reality detachment
- maniaIntense, consuming obsession
- bipolarHaving two opposite poles
schizophrenia · delusional · persecutory · overestimation · distortion · unrealistic · fantasy · psychopathology
Elaborate ceremonial display
- opulenceShowy, abundant prosperity
- splendorImpressive, striking beauty
- magnificenceImpressive beauty or scale
- extravaganceExcessive, wasteful spending
ostentation · sumptuousness · lavishness · regalia · ornateness · pomp · ceremony · fanfare
Rhetorical extreme exaggeration
- embellishmentDecorative addition or exaggeration
- overstatementClaim beyond the facts
- amplificationIncrease in intensity
- inflationSustained price level increase
puffery · bombast · dramatization · overemphasis · overestimation · overkill · superlative · bluster
hubris
Ruinous excessive confidence
- egotismInflated sense of self-importance
- conceitExaggerated self-admiration
- self-importanceExaggerated sense of significance
haughtiness · pomposity · vanity · superciliousness · overconfidence · smugness · imperiousness · presumption · boastfulness · high-handedness
megalomania
Obsession with one's importance
- narcissismExcessive admiration of oneself
- psychosisSevere reality detachment
- maniaIntense, consuming obsession
bipolar · schizophrenia · delusional · persecutory · overestimation · distortion · unrealistic · fantasy · psychopathology · illusion
pageantry
Elaborate ceremonial display
- opulenceShowy, abundant prosperity
- splendorImpressive, striking beauty
- magnificenceImpressive beauty or scale
extravagance · ostentation · sumptuousness · lavishness · regalia · ornateness · pomp · ceremony · fanfare · resplendence
hyperbole
Rhetorical extreme exaggeration
- embellishmentDecorative addition or exaggeration
- overstatementClaim beyond the facts
- amplificationIncrease in intensity
inflation · puffery · bombast · dramatization · overemphasis · overestimation · overkill · superlative · bluster · magnification
- Baroque ArtRembrandt, Caravaggio, Vermeer, Rubens, Velazquez
- bombastbombast, grandiloquence, magniloquence, pomposity, fustian
- megalomaniamegalomania, messiah complex, savior complex, egomania, self-worship
- mental symptomsanxiety, depression, paranoia, hallucination, delusion
- mood symptomssadness, hopelessness, worthlessness, anhedonia, low mood
- narcissismnarcissist, narcissistic personality disorder, ego, vanity, self-love
grandiosityhumility
Freedom from arrogance
modesty · humbleness · meekness · self-effacement · lowliness
grandiositysimplicity
Lack of complexity
understatement · plainness · restraint · naturalness · austerity
grand, grandeur, grandiose, grandest, aggrandize, grandee, grandiloquent, grander, aggrandizement