snobbery means the property or trait of being a snob. It carries an Arena rating of 1415, earned across 6 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, snobbery ranks #463 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,909 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #6,744 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #7,270 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say.
snobbery is pronounced /ˈsnɔbəɹɪj/.
Why “snobbery” is a great word
An exaggerated and pretentious admiration for high social status, wealth, or refined taste, coupled with a contemptuous attitude toward those deemed lacking in such qualities. From snob (originally meaning a person of low social status, later one who vulgarly apes the manners of the upper class) and the noun-forming suffix -ery, with the spelling altered by doubling the 'b' to clarify the pronunciation of the preceding vowel, first attested in 1833. Unlike elitism, which asserts a systemic and deserved privilege for a select group, or haughtiness, which is a more general and innate arrogance, snobbery is an acquired performance—a curated disdain rooted in the artificial hierarchies of consumption and connoisseurship. It is the frosty silence at the mention of a common brand, the barely perceptible wince at a mispronounced vintage, and the meticulously catalogued superiority found in the cut of a suit; a brittle fortress of taste constructed to keep the world, and one’s own ordinariness, at a careful distance.
Etymology
From snob + -ery – doubled ‘b’ to clarify pronunciation of ‘o’.
noun
- The property or trait of being a snob.
adj
- Synonym of snobby.e.g.“The only thing Volksworld acts snobbery about is the amount of dangerously built shit they have had to put with over the years.” — 1999 March 30, Nick Howarth, “Volksworld^([sic]) stinks”, in uk.rec.cars.vw.aircooled (Usenet), archived from the original on 24 Sep 2025:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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