- the quality of seeming impressive or important in an artificial or deliberately pompous way; pretentiousness:These are mere bogus revolutionaries, high on the sound of their own voices and the silly grandiosity of their claims.
- the quality of actually being imposing or impressive:Through the photographer's eyes these sprawling, well-known cities become worlds of extreme beauty, elegance, and grandiosity.
- the quality of being more complicated or elaborate than necessary:Hockey’s a great sport: gentlemanly and understated, with no fuss or grandiosity.
- an exaggerated belief in one’s own importance, sometimes reaching delusional proportions, as a symptom of a mental illness such as manic disorder:Paranoiacs tend to carry a bit of guilt with their grandiosity—a sense of some great transgression that has made them a magnet for universal hostility.
