Bombast

 WORD OF THE DA Y

bombast / noun / BAHM-bast

Definition
: pretentious inflated speech or writing

Examples
“... this sprawling German-language adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's classic WWI novel All Quiet on the Western Front is a film that feels both aesthetically dazzling and full of necessary truths: an antiwar drama that transcends the bombast of propaganda mostly just because it's so artfully and indelibly made.”
— Leah Greenblatt Entertainment Weekly, 28 Oct. 2022

Since the start of this year’s invasion, when Mr. Putin cast aside the pretense that Russia wasn’t active in Ukraine, Mr. Prigozhin has embraced a more public role with statements laced with bombast and sarcasm.
—Thomas Grove, WSJ, 12 Nov. 2022

Did You Know?
Bombast settled softly into English in the mid-late 16th century as a textile term used to refer to cotton or other soft fibrous material used as padding or stuffing (its ultimate source is likely Middle Persian pambak, meaning “cotton”).
Within a decade it had extended from literal stuffing to figurative stuffing, referring to speech or writing that is padded with pretentious verbiage.
The adjective bombastic, which followed bombast a century later, has been a favorite choice to describe blowhards, boasters, and cockalorums ever since