What's the difference between imperious and supercilious?

Imperious


Definition:

  • (a.) Commanding; ascendant; imperial; lordly; majestic.
  • (a.) Haughly; arrogant; overbearing; as, an imperious tyrant; an imperious manner.
  • (a.) Imperative; urgent; compelling.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) How big tobacco lost its final fight for hearts, lungs and minds Read more Shares in Imperial closed down 1% and British American Tobacco lost 0.75%, both underperforming the FTSE100’s 0.3% decline.
  • (2) The 180-acre imperial palace appears to send ripples through the surrounding urban grain like a rock thrown into a pond, forming the successive layers of ring-roads.
  • (3) Educated at Imperial College London, he trained at the contractors Freeman Fox, but in 1978 he turned freelance as a transport consultant, setting up his own firm: Steer Davies Gleave.
  • (4) Flying in Soyuz was “ real teamwork ” she said, adding: “Tim will have no trouble with that.” David Southwood , a senior researcher at Imperial College, and a member of the UK space agency steering board, has known Tim since he joined the European Space Agency in 2009.
  • (5) The Imperial War Museum’s Holocaust education officer, Rachel Donnelly, thinks the certification is appropriate.
  • (6) In its determination to probe the (semi) private lives of the nation's kings and queens, no imperial pyjama leg is left unplundered.
  • (7) Aaron Ramsey, who scored the opening goal and set up Bale for the third, was outstanding, Joe Allen delivered another imperious performance in centre midfield and then there was that wonderful moment when Neil Taylor, of all people, popped up with the second goal.
  • (8) Kipling deliberately concealed something of himself, but did not seek to conceal the truth about the nature of imperial power; Wodehouse exposed himself, and thereby inadvertently exposed something of the double standards of the system of power in which he unthinkingly believed.
  • (9) Imperial College [said] that 34% of their undergraduates are from non-EU, 64% of their postgraduates are non-EU," said Willis.
  • (10) Professor David Nutt, director of the neuropsychopharmacology unit at Imperial College, London, and former chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs , said the report provided strong evidence "that the costs of the current punitive approaches to cannabis control are massively disproportionate to the harms of the drug, and shows that more sensible approaches would provide significant financial benefits to the UK as well as reducing social exclusion and injustice".
  • (11) A recent study by researchers at Imperial College London made the claim that "statins have virtually no side effects, with users experiencing fewer adverse symptoms than if they had taken a placebo".
  • (12) Irish independence in 1922 was the first body blow in the 20th-century break-up of the British empire, even if Ireland was always something of a special imperial case.
  • (13) Britain should withdraw from the European convention on human rights during wartime because troops cannot fight under the yoke of “judicial imperialism”, according to a centre-right thinktank.
  • (14) Imperial Tobacco has become a major player in the US market after snapping up a raft of brands in a £4.2bn ($7bn) deal.
  • (15) Tony Goldstone , of the MRC Clinical Science Centre at Imperial College London, scanned the brains of people who skipped meals and found mechanisms at work that could help explain the conundrum.
  • (16) Thus China replaced a state bureaucracy with a similar state bureaucracy under a different name, the USSR replaced the dreaded imperial secret police with an even more dreaded secret police, and so forth.
  • (17) In 1948 it was a battered and exhausted London that played host, knowing that the days of imperial glory were gone for ever.
  • (18) His movements were monitored everywhere he went; he spent hours discussing the merits of Juche ideology over American imperialism; and his only contact with the outside world was a 10-minute phone call with his mum once a week.
  • (19) The Brexiters, by summoning up the patriotic genie, are implicitly calling on Britons to either become more parochial and less diverse – or else aspire to a second imperial age.
  • (20) Earlier this year, the university, which has long since dropped its imperial title, made the surprising decision to acknowledge the darkest chapter in its history with the inclusion of vivisection exhibits at its new museum .

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.