What's the difference between conceited and supercilious?

Conceited


Definition:

  • (a.) Endowed with fancy or imagination.
  • (a.) Entertaining a flattering opinion of one's self; vain.
  • (a.) Curiously contrived or designed; fanciful.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) No wry observations or whoops-a-daisy trombones to subvert the conceit for period lolz.
  • (2) Even a successful fiction writer would be unlikely to attempt to pull off an absurd conceit whereby the self-styled “greenest-ever” government hands out subsidies to the most heavily polluting companies just as it prepares to approve a global climate change treaty.
  • (3) In their new show , the trio Sheeps (which includes recent Foster’s award nominee Liam Williams ) perform the same sketch over and over, for an hour, in a variety of styles – the conceit being that they’re never satisfied it works.
  • (4) "That's why we developed Call of Duty Elite – the design conceit was, wouldn't it be great if we could unlock the game as a more social experience.
  • (5) He denies Southcliffe's central conceit is exploitative.
  • (6) He is far too astute an analyst of comedy to be unaware of the danger of looking smug and there were sufficient layers of irony and knowing jokes within jokes for the conceit to work.
  • (7) As those familiar with my novels know (especially Ulverton and Hodd ), I've always believed in the modernity of the past, from which our temporal conceit blinkers us.
  • (8) Then Smith ruins my conceit by grounding to Prince Fielder.
  • (9) Their music has long been free of such unnecessary clutter as metaphor, allegory, and poetic conceit.
  • (10) If he had been able to cross gorges and rivers without the need for ancient Egyptian conceits or even unadorned iron trusses, I think he would have leaped at the chance.
  • (11) So, this print version is more in name – a conceit, a promotion – than it is an actual business strategy.
  • (12) In 2014, RZA told Forbes that the conceit behind the album was in part motivated by a desire to restore a cash value to music in the age of streaming and internet piracy.
  • (13) It’s a fun conceit.” Just because Baker Street Irregulars members don’t emphasize costumes and cosplay, they still respect their fellow fandoms – there is even a Klingon edition of Sherlock Holmes.
  • (14) I like the conceit but I don't buy the translation: animals have fur, women wear furs, surely).
  • (15) Men's concerns, interests, anxieties or even pride in our own gender roles are typically sheltered by the conceits of fiction – as seen in the exquisite 62-hour thesis on modern masculinity that was Breaking Bad – or filtered through protective layers of irony and humour.Social media users recently parodied the internal travails of feminism with the hashtag #MeninistTwitter, but behind the walls of laddish banter and sexism, there were some very real anxieties and resentments on display.
  • (16) The vox pop – that spurious journalistic conceit – lets reporters seek out quotes to confirm each one's opinions (or for the BBC, just a meaningless one of each).
  • (17) This is not the first time we have seen arrogance and conceit from Mr Mellor.
  • (18) "You could see the little girls, fat with complacency and conceit while the little boys sat there crumpled, apologising for their existence, thinking this was going to be the pattern of their lives."
  • (19) He was the opposite of an egotist, being neither boastful nor conceited, but his professional personality had a streak of the kindly egoist to it.
  • (20) The conceit was a lie founded on truth, and that four-year hole in his IMDb list, beginning not long after he won a Golden Globe for Walk The Line , is real.

Supercilious


Definition:

  • (a.) Lofty with pride; haughty; dictatorial; overbearing; arrogant; as, a supercilious officer; asupercilious air; supercilious behavior.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Comment is perfectly legitimate, but the sneering, supercilious, specious and dismissive contributions masquerading as ‘commentary’ belittle the claims of a ‘quality’ paper.” Before attempting to assess the validity of the reader’s analysis – broadly shared by some other readers – I think his email reflects one or two other interesting aspects of the demographics of the Guardian’s readership and the left.
  • (2) After former tabloid editor Piers Morgan was fired from CNN , there were warnings that the US media was now poisoned to British accents and supposed superciliousness.
  • (3) But when I saw the advert it occurred to me that it, and that supercilious exclamation mark in particular, could in fact give people an excuse to express their homophobia.
  • (4) A decade later when I met him again in a hotel suite in London, it was more Mona Lisa than Cheshire Cat - coolly supercilious, ultimately indecipherable.
  • (5) It was often veiled, supercilious and sinister, but on screen he made us an offer we couldn't refuse.
  • (6) So the relationship that begins at the Milford railway station (it's two metaphorical stops down the line from Borchester – The Archers began five years after Brief Encounter) with a piece of grit in Laura's eye and Alec's unquestionably clean handkerchief will lead to afternoons together, lunch and a visit to the cinema (their silly movie is called Flames of Passion), a country drive, and an awkward trip to a friend's flat (the supercilious Valentine Dyall).
  • (7) Recently, I have caught myself saying something in everyday conversation that a few years ago would have elicited a cry of “supercilious wanker” from me if I’d heard someone else say it.
  • (8) Brexit, said Putin, was a result of irritation over Britain subsidising weaker economies, and “the British government’s self-assuredness and supercilious attitude to life-changing decisions in their own country and Europe in general”.
  • (9) I was made to regret it almost immediately when I was loudly condemned as a “supercilious prick”.
  • (10) Shimell's character is very supercilious and unsympathetic – he has a Basil Fawlty-esque fit of temper in a restaurant – and it is not easy to tell if this is deliberate, or if Kiarostami thinks Shimell elegant and cerebral.
  • (11) To others, though, he is at his supercilious worst here; floating the idea that, having withdrawn from the union, Scotland, in its beneficence, can turn round and preach to the English about how to deal with the nasty Tories.
  • (12) Their particular brand of upper class snobbery is now so anachronistic it’s simply amusing: in an obituary this week of Deborah , the writer pointed to a list of the late Duchess of Devonshire’s dislikes, which included but was not limited to “the bits of paper that fall out of magazines; female weather forecasters; the words ‘environment’, ‘conservation’ and ‘leisure’; supercilious assistants at makeup counters; dietary fads; skimmed milk; girls with slouching shoulders and Tony Blair.” And then there are the Nazis.
  • (13) You know when you're out walking and you see a party of riders, and they give you a slightly supercilious look?
  • (14) President Barack Obama is often criticised for superciliousness and arrogance.
  • (15) Now usually it would be advisable to ignore such news and treat in the same way as someone telling you that the sun is "hot and yellow", Piers Morgan is "smug and annoying", Katie Hopkins is "snobbish and supercilious" and the Mill is "tired and emotional" — it's just the way of life.