All words

tawdry

Meaning

Displaying a gaudy and inexpensive attractiveness; lacking in good taste due to excessive ornamentation and cheap materials.

Examples by difficulty

Basic: Simple, everyday vocabulary — the easiest to read.

She expected a fancy shop, but the place was awful. Glittering plastic flowers and cheap gold paint covered everything. The whole store felt like a sad attempt at luxury, a truly tawdry mess of things that just looked cheap and overdone.

The amusement park felt wrong. Fake gold glitter rained down from the cheap plastic carousel horses, and the smell of stale sugar filled the air. Everything looked bright and shiny, but it was all so tawdry, like a child's forgotten toy that was once loved but now just sad.

The carnival barker’s smile was as fake as his gold tooth, his suit a loud mix of clashing colors. Everything about his booth felt tawdry, the cheap plastic trinkets and glittery banners screaming for attention but offering no real value. It made the hairs on my arms stand up.

Barry's clown suit was a riot of itchy sequins and clashing colors. A giant plastic banana dangled from his belt, a truly tawdry addition that screamed "look at me, I'm cheap!" His fake mustache, glued on with what looked like bubblegum, just added to the gaudy display.

Brenda's pet rock, Bartholomew, sported a new hat knitted from neon yarn scraps and glued-on glitter. He also wore a tiny bowtie made of tin foil. Bartholomew, frankly, looked quite gaudy and inexpensive, his excessive ornamentation and cheap materials making him seem to lack any real good taste.

Normal: Standard, everyday language.

She wore too much glitter and a plastic tiara that kept slipping. Her dress, a neon pink monstrosity, was covered in cheap, jangly beads. Everything about her felt tawdry, like a dollar store version of a princess, screaming for attention she couldn't truly command.

The carnival barker's smile was as fake as the plastic gold chain around his neck. His voice, a grating rasp, promised wonders in the tent behind him, but the garish, sequined costume and the overall air of desperation screamed cheap. It was all so tawdry.

The roadside trinket stall overflowed with glittering plastic dragons and faux-gold chains. Each garish piece seemed designed to scream for attention, a frankly tawdry display of cheapness that made Sarah want to avert her eyes from the overwhelming, gaudy clutter.

My aunt's Christmas decorations were a masterpiece of tackiness. Tinsel exploded from every surface, glitter rained down like a sparkly blizzard, and plastic Santas with vacant stares were crammed into every available nook. It was so over-the-top, so unbelievably tawdry, you couldn't help but chuckle at the sheer audacity of it all.

The aspiring wizard’s enchanted broomstick, rather than shimmering with mystical power, was adorned with plastic rhinestones and a feathered boa. Its handle, meant for wielding elemental forces, was wrapped in neon pink duct tape, showcasing a decidedly tawdry aesthetic that even the goblins at the flea market wouldn't touch.

Advanced: Richer vocabulary that stretches an upper-level reader.

The souvenir shop overflowed with glittering plastic trinkets and garish t shirts. Everything felt tawdry, screaming for attention with cheap shine and gaudy colors, a far cry from the subtle beauty she’d hoped to find.

The novelty shop's shelves overflowed with trinkets. Plastic rosaries strung with faux pearls and garish, glitter-encrusted crucifixes offered a truly tawdry display. Each item felt cheap and overstated, a testament to a complete absence of refinement, shouting for attention with its overwhelming ornamentation.

The alchemist's stall overflowed with trinkets, each trying to outshine the last. Gilded phials, studded with cheap glass, and amulets of polished bone on garish cords felt desperately tawdry. He hoped the gaudy display would lure in the gullible, but it only inspired disgust.

Bartholomew, convinced he was a fashion paragon, sported a sequined vest over a Hawaiian shirt. His "gold" chain, clearly plastic, clashed spectacularly with his enormous, gaudy belt buckle. This ensemble, a truly tawdry spectacle, screamed "I found this at a dollar store after a particularly rowdy rodeo."

The goblin prince's coronation robes were a masterpiece of the *tawdry*. Imagine a tapestry woven from discarded bottle caps, sequined to within an inch of their polyester lives, and festooned with plastic eyeballs that swiveled independently. He looked less like royalty and more like a particularly garish yard sale.

Challenging: Rare, high-register vocabulary for serious word lovers.

The carnival barker's smile was as fake as the plastic jewels adorning his vest, a glaring testament to his tawdry costume that promised delights but delivered only disappointment. His spiel, a relentless cascade of insincere superlatives, felt like the gaudy, cheap glitz he embodied.

The cheap glitter glued onto the amateurishly sculpted miniatures felt utterly tawdry, a stark contrast to the elegant historical dioramas. Each garish plastic figure, drowning in excessive, gaudy adornments, screamed a lack of discernment, a vulgar ostentation that offended the discerning eye.

The bazaar's garish tent shimmered under the relentless sun, its cheap tinsel and luridly dyed fabrics a visual assault. He recoiled from the stall, its gaudy offerings and tawdry displays promising nothing but a fleeting, tasteless spectacle of poorly conceived adornment.

The magician's hastily assembled "palace," a cacophony of sequined spandex and tinsel draped haphazardly over cardboard, exuded a decidedly tawdry charm. His gratuitous overuse of glitter, coupled with the alarming neon hues of his velvet cape, made the entire spectacle a triumph of gaudy and inexpensive attractiveness, utterly devoid of any discernible good taste.

The flamboyant peacock, a veritable paragon of gaudy adornment, preened with plumage so excessively ornamented and crafted from what appeared to be inexpensive, shimmering plastic, that its entire presentation was utterly tawdry, a cacophony of misplaced ostentation that frankly offended the discerning eye of the arboreal philosopher observing from his lichen-encrusted perch.

Difficulty

Challenging — Rare, high-register words for serious word lovers.

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