pontificating
Speaking with grandeur
Pontificating is speaking in a pompous, self-important way, as if delivering authoritative pronouncements from on high.
The word suggests someone holding forth at length on matters they consider themselves expert in, often without invitation: He spent dinner pontificating about wine.
The tone is typically condescending, the audience typically trapped.
Lecturing on morals
- preachingDelivering moral discourse
- declaimingSpeaking rhetorically aloud
- pronouncingUttering with voice
- expoundingExplaining at length
lecturing · orating · holding forth · moralizing · opining · proclaiming · dictating · prescribing
Giving an instructive talk
- instructingConveying how to proceed
- teachingProfession of instructing others
- expoundingExplaining at length
- explainingMaking something understood
edifying · enlightening · informing · schooling · tutoring · preaching · mentoring · guiding
Long-winded empty speech
- long-windedExcessively wordy, tediously so
- wordyUsing more language than necessary
- ramblingLong-winded and unfocused
- droningSustained monotonous sound
windy · prolix · garrulous · loquacious · voluble · discursive · digressive · circumlocutory
Performing to impress onlookers
- bloviatingLong-winded empty speech
- puffed-upExcessively self-important
- self-importantExaggerating one's own significance
- arrogantExcessively high self-regard
condescending · patronizing · supercilious · haughty · imperious · overbearing · presumptuous · smug
sermonizing
Lecturing on morals
- preachingDelivering moral discourse
- declaimingSpeaking rhetorically aloud
- pronouncingUttering with voice
expounding · lecturing · orating · holding forth · moralizing · opining · proclaiming · dictating · prescribing · dogmatizing
lecturing
Giving an instructive talk
- instructingConveying how to proceed
- teachingProfession of instructing others
- expoundingExplaining at length
explaining · edifying · enlightening · informing · schooling · tutoring · preaching · mentoring · guiding · coaching
bloviating
Long-winded empty speech
- long-windedExcessively wordy, tediously so
- wordyUsing more language than necessary
- ramblingLong-winded and unfocused
droning · windy · prolix · garrulous · loquacious · voluble · discursive · digressive · circumlocutory · meandering
grandstanding
Performing to impress onlookers
- bloviatingLong-winded empty speech
- puffed-upExcessively self-important
- self-importantExaggerating one's own significance
arrogant · condescending · patronizing · supercilious · haughty · imperious · overbearing · presumptuous · smug · superior
- ego displaysarrogance, vanity, boasting, showboating, braggadocio
- pretentiousnesspretentious, pretentiousness, pretension, pompous, pomposity
- oratorypublic speaking, speeches, oration, orations, addresses
- tiradestirades, tirade, rants, rant, harangues
- showboatingshowing off, bragging, boasting, grandstanding, posturing
- moral teachingsmoral lesson, moral story, moral tale, moral fable, moral teaching
pontificatinglistening
Attending to sound
inquiring · questioning · tentative · hedging · attending
pontificatinghumble
Unassuming about oneself
meek · modest · self-effacing · unassuming · demure