What's the difference between pretentious and superficial?

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".

Superficial


Definition:

  • (a.) Of or pertaining to the superficies, or surface; lying on the surface; shallow; not deep; as, a superficial color; a superficial covering; superficial measure or contents; superficial tillage.
  • (a.) Reaching or comprehending only what is obvious or apparent; not deep or profound; shallow; -- said especially in respect to study, learning, and the like; as, a superficial scholar; superficial knowledge.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) A simple method of selective catheterization of the superficial femoral artery (SFA) following antegrade puncture of the common femoral artery is described.
  • (2) Are you ready to vote?” is the battle cry, and even the most superficial of glances at the statistics tells why.
  • (3) These data suggest that basophilic cell function in the superficial mucous layer in the nose is of greater significance in the development of nasal symptoms in response to nasal allergy than either mucociliary activity or nasal mucosal hypersensitivity to histamine.
  • (4) After haemorrhage in conscious rabbits total renal blood flow fell by 25%, this fall being confined to the superficial renal cortex.
  • (5) This was followed firstly by superficial and then by deep ulceration of the mucosa.
  • (6) The soleus, deep portions of the vastus lateralis, and superficial portions of the vastus lateralis muscles were examined to represent slow-twitch-oxidative, fast-twitch-oxidative-glycolytic, and fast-twitch-glycolytic skeletal muscle fiber types, respectively.
  • (7) The normal anatomical position of the point of junction of the superficial cerebral veins with the superior sagittal and transverse sinuses of the rat was studied with an analytical mathematical method.
  • (8) Tinea versicolor was the commonest superficial dermatomycosis affecting nearly half of all adults seen.
  • (9) It is concluded that catechol potentiates excitatory transmission at the LOT-superficial pyramidal cell synapse, possibly by increasing evoked transmitter release.
  • (10) This study presents data supporting a selective antinociceptive role for DA at the spinal level, where it has a widespread antinociceptive influence, on cells in both the superficial and deeper dorsal horn.
  • (11) In fact the deep femoral artery represents an exceptional and privileged route for anastomosis that is capable of replacing almost perfectly an obstructed superficial femoral artery and also in a more limited way femoro-popliteal arteries with extensive obstructions.
  • (12) Superficial x-ray therapy is an excellent modality for the treatment of squamous cell carcinomas of the lower extremity in the elderly.
  • (13) This suggests a possible depressant effect of both GABA and taurine at superficial cortical layers.
  • (14) CD8 positive cells were detected randomly in all regions of the mucosa, whereas CD4 positive cells tended to be clustered in the superficial portion of the lamina propria.
  • (15) Comparing the tolerable side-effects with their favourable therapeutic results, BCG is considered to be suitable for the prevention of recurrences in treating superficial bladder tumours.
  • (16) This study concluded that inverted positioning for short periods significantly increased spinal length and reduced emg activity of the superficial lumbar area musculature of normal males.
  • (17) No common aetiological factor could be found, although four of these patients did have a mild or moderatley active superficial chronic gastritis.
  • (18) Disturbance of bone metabolism is observed in both the superficial (delta) and slow exchanges (Ve), which are also significantly decreased.
  • (19) The results showed that dogfish lenses developed superficial opacities due to near-UV exposure.
  • (20) The neighbouring neocortical areas receive afferents neither from the mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus nor from the ventral mesencephalic tegmentum; their catecholamine innervation is mainly confined to the superficial layers and appears to be of noradrenergic nature.