What's the difference between elegance and ostentation?

Elegance


Definition:

  • (n.) Alt. of Elegancy

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Today, she wears an elegant salmon-pink blouse with white trousers and a long, pale pink coat.
  • (2) Rather than an off-plan Oxshott monster-mansion, he moved his family to an elegant Eaton Terrace townhouse in south-west London.
  • (3) She followed that with a job at Bibendum – she still talks of Simon Hopkinson, "such an elegant cook, so particular and clean and efficient", with deep reverence – and another at Roscoff in Northern Ireland.
  • (4) It's typically sober and elegant, and Cotillard excels in a nervy, vulnerable role.
  • (5) Yet, in spite of this restriction, the 2-mu plasmid of yeast has evolved an elegant mechanism which can allow it to rapidly amplify its copy number without initiating multiple rounds of replication.
  • (6) It is readily expressed as clinical sensitivity and specificity, and elegantly represented by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.
  • (7) And there is plenty of beauty in London - seeing Parliament Square in the snow, the dome of St Paul's rising above the City, the simple perfection of a Georgian terrace or the quietly elegant streets of Mayfair.
  • (8) The portion of my sample prawn orzo was a modest but polished plate of food, the dense bisque and silky grains of pasta elegantly punctuated by small bursts of tart, sweet semi-dried tomato.
  • (9) He believed that western liberal democracy, with its elegant balance of liberty and equality, could not be bettered; that its attainment would lead to a general calming in world affairs; and that in the long run it would be the only credible game in town.
  • (10) Total-Body Scanner is rather an elegant method but a discontinuous one.
  • (11) Foundas also praises Magic's photography, calling its "elegantly choreographed traveling master shots bathed in natural light" a key part of "one of his most beautifully made films."
  • (12) It is the latest in a series of sculpture commissions to occupy the elegant neoclassical galleries, which stretch back 86 metres from the museum's main entrance on the banks of the Thames.
  • (13) Sean Ingle Wimbledon No one has broken Roger Federer’s serve at these championships, let alone taken a set, and the appreciative midsummer murmurs from No1 Court as the seven-times Wimbledon champion elegantly dissected Tommy Robredo suggested they believe he retains the game to win a record eighth title.
  • (14) The intricate wood carving, the elegant furniture, the panelled walls, the grand entrance hall and the cantilevered stairs are undeniably impressive.
  • (15) Whenever I read Philip French's elegant and thoughtful criticism, I felt like I was in the company of someone who not only loved cinema but who felt a sense of responsibility toward it as an art form.
  • (16) It was not an elegant parting, as Christine Bleakley was pushed out by the BBC on Sunday afternoon , leaving ITV to scramble a contract together for her to sign two hours later.
  • (17) It positioned Kelela as a significant new vocalist, her phrasing indebted to pop but somehow elegantly haunting.
  • (18) The unfairly maligned camel is a model of sleek, practical and elegant design compared with the clumsy creature the coalition has produced.
  • (19) The idea that huge, intractable social issues such as sexism and racism could be affected in such simple ways had a powerful intuitive appeal, and hinted at the possibility of equally simple, elegant solutions.
  • (20) The Elegance room – it sounds like a department of Harrods – sets the grand social portraits of Rubens alongside artists they “influenced”.

Ostentation


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of ostentating or of making an ambitious display; unnecessary show; pretentious parade; -- usually in a detractive sense.
  • (n.) A show or spectacle.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) We are supposed to slaver enviously at this ostentation; if we don’t, we condemn ourselves as losers.
  • (2) The company that helped the couple design it said: “They wanted not ostentation but ‘a spirit of home’.” While the yacht was designed primarily for relaxed cruising, Staley has sailed her across the Atlantic to complete one of his “bucket list” life goals.
  • (3) Awopbopaloobop transferred the underworld grit, diamond-studded teeth and overflowing dresses in Cohn’s imagination to the glamour, the ostentation, the ruthlessness and grubbiness of the pop business.
  • (4) Yet it would be wrong to overlook the damage done to the Japanese psyche in the immediate aftermath of the bursting of the bubble in the early 1990s, a decade of excess and ostentation sustained by a shared illusion that the economy would remain for ever on an upward trajectory.
  • (5) Many of those present had travelled for days by bus or plane to see a pope that they admire for his spirituality, lack of ostentation and strong emphasis on the poor.
  • (6) According to Billboard , Daleste was involved in São Paulo's ostentation funk scene, where rappers trade gangster bars over heavily percussive beats.
  • (7) His other great passion is good taste – a quality he credits for distinguishing his family from the tacky ostentation of most Russian oligarchs, who rather embarrass Lebedev.