blatant

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
9
Words With Friends
12
Letters
7
Pronunciation
/ˈbleɪtənt/

Definition of blatant

2 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. Obvious, on show; unashamed; loudly obtrusive or offensive.
    “Glory, that blatant word, which haunts some military minds like the bray of the trumpet.”
    “London died away in draggled taverns and dreary scrubs, and then was unaccountably born again in blazing high streets and blatant hotels.”
    “He tried to think out what those two men had which so strangely attracted her. They both had a vulgar facetiousness which tickled her simple sense of humour, and a certain coarseness of nature; but what took her perhaps was the blatant sexuality which was their most marked characteristic.”
    “WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, […]. They also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies.”
See all 2 definitions

adj

  1. Obvious, on show; unashamed; loudly obtrusive or offensive.
    “Glory, that blatant word, which haunts some military minds like the bray of the trumpet.”
    “London died away in draggled taverns and dreary scrubs, and then was unaccountably born again in blazing high streets and blatant hotels.”
    “He tried to think out what those two men had which so strangely attracted her. They both had a vulgar facetiousness which tickled her simple sense of humour, and a certain coarseness of nature; but what took her perhaps was the blatant sexuality which was their most marked characteristic.”
    “WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, […]. They also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies.”
  2. (archaic)Bellowing; disagreeably clamorous; sounding loudly and harshly.
    “A monster, which the Blatant beast men call.”
    “harsh and blatant tones”
    “A blatant bugle tears my afternoons. / Out clump the clumsy Tommies by platoons, / Trying to keep in step with rag-time tunes, / But I sit still; I've done my drill.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Coined by Edmund Spenser in 1596 in "blatant beast". Probably a variation of *blatand (Scots blaitand (“bleating”)), present participle of blate, a variation of bleat, equivalent to blate + -ant.…

See full etymology

Coined by Edmund Spenser in 1596 in "blatant beast". Probably a variation of *blatand (Scots blaitand (“bleating”)), present participle of blate, a variation of bleat, equivalent to blate + -ant. See bleat. In addition, it is suggested by Latin blatiō (“speak like a fool, prate”), which is rare, and so the similitude may be just coincidental. Compare typologically Bulgarian вопиющ (vopijušt), Russian вопию́щий (vopijúščij) (akin to вопи́ть (vopítʹ)).

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