What's the difference between ascertain and pretentious?

Ascertain


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To render (a person) certain; to cause to feel certain; to make confident; to assure; to apprise.
  • (v. t.) To make (a thing) certain to the mind; to free from obscurity, doubt, or change; to make sure of; to fix; to determine.
  • (v. t.) To find out or learn for a certainty, by trial, examination, or experiment; to get to know; as, to ascertain the weight of a commodity, or the purity of a metal.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) We have investigated the effect of methimazole (MMI) on cell-mediated immunity and ascertained the mechanisms of immunosuppression produced by the drug.
  • (2) Prior to oral feeding, little or no ELA was detected in stools and endotoxinemia was ascertained in only six of 45 infants (13%).
  • (3) A total of 13 ascertainments of folate sensitive autosomal fragile sites is observed, of which 10q23 fragility appears to be the most frequent.
  • (4) A similar examination of the effects of PD was also carried out in vitro to ascertain whether PD itself or its metabolites are involved in its action.
  • (5) The purity and configuration of each isomer of the free acid and N-chloroacetylated derivative were ascertained by: (a) paper chromatography in five solvent systems, (b) elemental analysis, (c) Van Slyke nitrous acid determination of alpha-carbonyl carbon, and (d) Van Slyke ninhydrin determination of alpha-carbonyl carbon, and (e) optical rotation.
  • (6) In an anthropologic study of illness referral among Latin-American immigrants three phases were ascertained: First, there was extended use of self-treatment.
  • (7) In 20 adult patients with asthma, we evaluated bronchodilation to a single administration of metered-dose glycopyrrolate aerosol (GA) to ascertain its onset and duration of action along with evaluation of safety.
  • (8) 64% of the patients without nodular metastases and 45% of the patients with histologically ascertained nodular metastases and 45% of the patients with histologically ascertained nodular metastases survived the 3-year interval.
  • (9) The results indicated a very good comparability between the dot-blot assay and IF-tests, and this dot-blot method was ascertained as a simple and useful method for the scrub typhus serodiagnosis.
  • (10) Combinations of YM534 with other anti-cancer agents were examined to ascertain whether YM534 potentiated other anti-cancer agents against the KB cell line and its multidrug-resistant counterpart, VJ-300.
  • (11) Three experiments in person perception were conducted to investigate the conditions under which naive observers label an actor as aggressive and to ascertain how this label affects the reactions of the observers to the actor.
  • (12) This study was designed to ascertain the frequency of these problems in our RS patients, whether they were related to other clinical features of RS and what was the extent of the resulting disability.
  • (13) The nutritional requirements for optimal production of biologically active l-asparaginase by a strain of Escherichia coli have been ascertained.
  • (14) Fifty-seven strains of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli isolated from humans and pigs and producing thermolabile (LT) enterotoxin were used to ascertain the efficiency of the Biken test compared to the passive immune haemolysis test (PIH), considered as very sensitive for detecting that enterotoxin.
  • (15) In the formation of the transformation index the difference between the two groups could be statistically ascertained.
  • (16) This was a highly significant (p less than 0.0001) predictor of 5-year total mortality, whose ascertainment was virtually complete.
  • (17) On the basis of segregating phenotypes, the genetic potentials of these compatible nocardiae were ascertained as follows: the formation of a diploid with subsequent segregation of parental or haploid recombinant genomes or both; persistence of the diploid through many generations; continuing reassortment of genetic information by multiple matings between parental or recombinant organisms; and, very probably, second-round recombinations within the diploid.
  • (18) Based on the ratio of plasma membrane marker enzyme activity determined in the nuclear preparation, the purity of the isolated nuclei was ascertained.
  • (19) The amount of free testosterone in the saliva was also ascertained for 23 of the subjects.
  • (20) In addition, re-analysis of previous investigations of the MAB underscores the importance of ascertaining the reading level of subjects prior to the administration of the MAB.

Pretentious


Definition:

  • (a.) Full of pretension; disposed to lay claim to more than is one's; presuming; assuming.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But BrewDog’s astonishing growth may raise the uncomfortable possibility that in an age of media-savvy and brand-sceptical digital natives, ostentatious displays of “authenticity” – known to some as acting like pretentious hipster douchebags – may have become a necessary condition for success.
  • (2) All seven did at least try to give this dire and pretentious concept some life.
  • (3) To acknowledge that it must have seemed pretentious to enjoy 'This Charming Man' when Duran Duran was playing on the radio.
  • (4) If you ever feel tempted to say "status quo" or "cul de sac", for instance, Orwell will sneer at you for "pretentious diction".
  • (5) In one of the most pretentious sections, in traffic accidents of the type pedestrian--car, they want to attempt an interdisciplinary study the purpose of which is to obtain certain basic data for expert evaluation of the mechanism of fatal injuries of pedestrians, and a basis for assessing speed limits at sites of increased danger of this type of accidents.
  • (6) In Manhattan, she is cast as a pretentious, irksome snob of a journalist.
  • (7) The site also captions shots of the young and pretentious with lines such as: "Hold on, let me check to see if Topshop sells any iPhone purses."
  • (8) The most pretentious group are young patients working in industry.
  • (9) They're charged with posh-lad pretentiousness as a result, though I don't know it's all that uncommon for bands to plunder snatches of lyrics from wider culture.
  • (10) Newest methods are the technically very pretentious intraarterial perfusion with venous hemofiltration and the chemo-embolization of the hepatic artery requiring meanwhile an adjuvant systemic chemotherapy because the chemo-embolization influences only the arterially supplied part of the metastases.
  • (11) Speaking to Alec Wilkinson of the New Yorker, Springsteen remarked that Seeger "had a real sense of the musician as historical entity – of being a link in the thread of people who sing in others' voices and carry the tradition forward … and a sense that songs were tools, and, without sounding too pretentious, righteous implements when connected to historical consciousness".
  • (12) The detection of this preclinical stage in particular in sporadic cases is in common clinical practice, due to the low prevalence of the disease in the population and pretentious character as regards applied methods, unreal.
  • (13) People talk of "journalese" as though a journalist were of necessity a pretentious and sloppy writer; he may be, on the contrary, and very often is, one of the best in the world.
  • (14) They can now decide for themselves whether that font of wisdom, Halliwell's Film and Video Guide, gets it right by calling it 'a repulsive film in which intellectuals have found acres of significanceÉ it is pretentious and nasty rubbish for sick minds who do not mind jazzed-up images and incoherent sound'.
  • (15) Tom is a heavy metal fan who, as Matt says in the film, thinks indie rock is "pretentious bullshit"; the National are all around 40 with their carousing days behind them, so Tom brought the party himself, getting wasted on his own and filming himself for kicks.
  • (16) "You can call it a bacterial heat production effect if you are a pretentious scientist, or you can call it composting," he said.
  • (17) Describe your ideal audience member Russell Kane TR Discerning, critical, pretentious and stupid.
  • (18) With regard to the non-pretentious, simple and safe character and the high yield of the procedure the authors consider thin-needle biopsy under ultrasonographic control a foremost operation which makes morphological assessment even of diffuse liver diseases possible.
  • (19) The operation, though pretentious and time consuming, has the advantage of an extrathoracic approach.
  • (20) A broad swathe of the middle class, not just collectors, lap up the videos and pretentious installations he lambasts (he has never collected video), and dismiss any scepticism as "conservative".