The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pretentious \Pre*ten"tious\, a. [Cf. F. pr['e]tentieux. See Pretend.] Full of pretension; disposed to lay claim to more than is one's; presuming; assuming. -- Pre*ten"tious*ly, adv. -- Pre*ten"tious*ness, n.
Wiktionary
adv. 1 In a manner with unwarranted claim to importance or distinction. 2 ostentatiously; in a manner intended to impress others. 3 In a manner demanding of skill or daring.
WordNet
adv. in a pretentious manner; "this author writes pretentiously" [ant: unpretentiously]
Usage examples of "pretentiously".
Characteristic of the locality is a certain row of one-storey cottages--villas, the advertiser calls them--built of white brick, each with one bay window on the ground floor, a window pretentiously fashioned and desiring to be taken for stone, though obviously made of bad plaster.
He was suddenly desolated with loneliness, with a fear that he would never see them again, with a speculation as to whether he was not a fool to leave his familiar work and to go thus pretentiously spying into foreign ways that he would never understand.