ISEE/SSAT Vocabulary BuilderWordsMmeretricious
ISEE/SSAThard
meretricious
Meaning: superficially attractive but lacking genuine worth
meretricious in a sentence
How meretricious is used in real sentences:
The advertisement relied on meretricious glamour rather than evidence of quality.
The candidate's meretricious promises impressed voters until experts examined the details.
“The most meretricious result appeared during a public demonstration: a bright dashboard displayed precise county forecasts, although its elegance rested on stale population estimates.”
— from the passage When the Curve Breaks
“Unfortunately, opening night reveals a meretricious spectacle, glittering insistently while Shakespeare's human conflicts disappear beneath it.”
— from the passage The Engineered Tempest
“She also rejected the directors' meretricious defense: handsome charts of rising traffic could not offset cash missing from the treasury.”
— from the passage The Season of Reckoning
Synonyms for meretricious
Other words for meretricious — flashy, tawdry and showy — carry the same meaning.
- flashy
- tawdry
- showy
Antonyms of meretricious
Words that mean the opposite of meretricious:
- genuine
- substantial
- tasteful
Where it comes from
From Latin meretrix, meaning 'prostitute,' from merere, 'to earn.'
Memory hook
MERETRICIOUS sounds like 'mere tricks': flashy tricks can hide a lack of real value.
Practice meretricious in the app