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Q&A Meretricious - A bit too fancy?

I have a character that I want to sound very intelligent, well educated, someone who always uses the correct words with no unnecessary filler. I have found the word 'meretricious' which has the pe...

3 answers  ·  posted 13y ago by RichK‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question thesaurus dialogue
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T01:22:22Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/2036
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar RichK‭ · 2019-12-08T01:22:22Z (over 4 years ago)
I have a character that I want to sound very intelligent, well educated, someone who always uses the correct words with no unnecessary filler.

I have found the word 'meretricious' which has the perfect definition I'm after but I wonder if it's just 'a bit too much' - maybe too obvious that I've used a thesaurus and would result in unrealistic dialog.

Does it seem sensible? if not - what alternatives would one recommend? _Gaudy_ and _brazen_ don't have quite the effect I want to reveal this guy's inner workings.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2011-03-16T20:43:28Z (about 13 years ago)
Original score: 6