What's the difference between pompous and solemn?

Pompous


Definition:

  • (a.) Displaying pomp; stately; showy with grandeur; magnificent; as, a pompous procession.
  • (a.) Ostentatious; pretentious; boastful; vainlorious; as, pompous manners; a pompous style.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Leave aside the noxious and pompous view that the views of non-national-security-professionals - whatever that means - should be ignored when it comes to militarism, US foreign policy and war crimes.
  • (2) On last Friday's Radio 4 Today programme , the historian Robert Service played his part to perfection, pompously advising the BBC to "get some sense of proportion".
  • (3) He says that the idea of the corrupt, lying, pompous politician has become "the equivalent of the mother-in-law or Irish joke of the 1970s".
  • (4) As the debate reached its conclusion, Stockwood, dressed grandly in a purple cassock and pompously fondling his crucifix in a way that was devastatingly lampooned by Rowan Atkinson a week later on a Not the Nine O'Clock News sketch, delivered his parting shot of, "You'll get your 30 pieces of silver."
  • (5) She was terrifying but not pompous, and she could be quite playful, quite cosy in a strange way."
  • (6) Auda is more of a problem: his character is portrayed as an unreformed savage who cares only for violence, treasure and his own pompous self-image.
  • (7) Giles Oakley London • In conception and format, it was trite – while being undeservedly pompous and self-esteeming.
  • (8) About three years ago, he was teasing me about something – being thick probably, or making pompous speeches.
  • (9) His chairman, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, was more magnificently pompous, as befits an ex-foreign secretary.
  • (10) Please don't read my pompous views above as referring to the great majority of gallery shows, where dealers display art they hope someone will want to buy for their home, and new collectors are born every week.
  • (11) When those inside the temple are pompous hypocrites, maybe it is the better place to be.
  • (12) Those who actively seek out linguistic slip-ups will correct you with such glee that it makes you doubt whether their commitment to "calling out" bigotry matches their commitment to pompous arseholerly.
  • (13) Chaplin himself wrote about this process: "Sometimes a musician would get pompous with me, and I would cut him short: 'Whatever the melody is, the rest is just a vamp.'
  • (14) I realised that my goal here really is to represent – it sounds super-pompous – how we think and how we associate.
  • (15) "Without wishing to sound pompous, I do more research now than ever.
  • (16) I will leave the public to judge his actions.” Mick Cash, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, said it should be no surprise that his black cab members across London were considering “a boycott of the Tory toff David Mellor over his outrageous, pompous and disgraceful tirade against one of their colleagues”.
  • (17) Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – five reasons we're still slightly worried Read more This caped crusader has had a personality upgrade Facebook Twitter Pinterest Photograph: Warner Bros The Batman we met in The Lego Movie aways seemed an unlikely candidate for his own solo film, a pompous jerk who was more Flash Thompson than Bruce Wayne.
  • (18) It was as absurd for a Tory MP to demand Abbott's resignation from the shadow cabinet on account of this remark as it was for Ed Miliband to tell her pompously "in no uncertain terms" that it had been "unacceptable".
  • (19) It's pompous twaddle with no relevance to fucking anything."
  • (20) This is all the more surprising since Tolstoy seems to speak freely, in his fiction, with the sort of moralistic-prophetic voice – the voice of a teacher of right and wrong – that lesser writers are obliged to use sparingly, unless they want to sound pompous and didactic.

Solemn


Definition:

  • (a.) Marked with religious rites and pomps; enjoined by, or connected with, religion; sacred.
  • (a.) Pertaining to a festival; festive; festal.
  • (a.) Stately; ceremonious; grand.
  • (a.) Fitted to awaken or express serious reflections; marked by seriousness; serious; grave; devout; as, a solemn promise; solemn earnestness.
  • (a.) Real; earnest; downright.
  • (a.) Affectedly grave or serious; as, to put on a solemn face.
  • (a.) Made in form; ceremonious; as, solemn war; conforming with all legal requirements; as, probate in solemn form.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) wearefriendlyfires.com Ceremoniously slow and with a mood of solemn self-satisfaction and reflective pride, the most I can say about this is every note of it is archetypal national anthem fodder.
  • (2) Facebook Twitter Pinterest China dismisses Trump call with Taiwan as ‘small trick’ However, Beijing’s public response has so far been measured, with the foreign ministry lodging a “solemn representation” with Washington and the foreign minister, Wang Yi, downplaying the development as “a petty move” by Taiwan.
  • (3) Holocaust survivors and government officials have gathered at the memorial site of the former concentration camp Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany , in a solemn ceremony to commemorate the liberation of the camp 70 years ago.
  • (4) In Kentucky , county clerks issue marriage licenses, and someone else must “solemnize” the marriage.
  • (5) Referring to the 70th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in what Beijing calls “the Chinese people’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression”, Hua said: “We solemnly urge the Japanese side to draw hard lessons from history.” Satellite images Chinese-built runway artificial island finished Read more China is planning a large-scale military parade to mark the end of the second world war in the Pacific.
  • (6) Reality, fantasy and war Call of Duty has never been a series to offer solemn commentary on the nature of war.
  • (7) Still, I like to believe that these small-scale ventures, too, make some contribution to a conversation without limits or proscriptions; the sine qua non of the sort of society that knows to keep the solemn and the pious at bay.
  • (8) He brings us his mackerel, and his marigolds, as a child just able to walk solemnly brings objects … a birdcage, or a colander … and deposits them as an offering before the attentive adult."
  • (9) Holding a Qur’an and looking solemn, Barrow was sworn in at the Gambian embassy in Dakar, where he has spent the past few days, and delivered his inaugural speech as president.
  • (10) It solemnly proclaimed Ireland's independence, appointed ambassadors to the Peace Conference, where they have not yet been bidden, passed an address to the free nations of the world, and made some pretence of framing orders for its domestic procedure.
  • (11) In short, these solemn written principles of engagement had not been agreed, written, or signed by anyone at the point Crosby was engaged by the Conservative party.
  • (12) 'No,' he said with his usual solemn deliberation, 'it was the downfall of a great people and a great civilisation.'
  • (13) He also produced this effect in some of his sculptures, for example Untitled (Funerary Box for a Lime Green Python) (1954), where a pair of solemn-looking palm leaves gives the work a consciously ritualistic tone.
  • (14) Right up until Sunday's first-round vote, the frenetic Sarkozy, known as the "president of bling" was apologising for what he called his lack of solemnity at the start of his presidency.
  • (15) Pistorius had solemnly entered the court wearing a grey suit and blue tie.
  • (16) Nato’s security guarantee is treaty commitment and all allies have made ... a solemn commitment to defend each other.
  • (17) Rakoff nodded in solemn agreement, although she had no idea who this Jerry person was.
  • (18) More arrived every minute, until, when an ambulance left carrying the bodies of Liu and Ramos, they formed a vast and silent honour guard, saluting solemnly in the flashing lights.
  • (19) In return, we give them a solemn pledge: that we shall keep their role secret.
  • (20) But the apology was delivered with enough solemnity to win some credit.