meretricious.

1. Attractive in a flashy or deceptive way while lacking substantial worth.

2. Relating to prostitution or a prostitute in an older usage.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• meretricious charm
• meretricious ornament

On the page

The meretricious grandeur impressed him until he examined the workmanship.

She distrusted the speech’s meretricious appeal to noble feeling.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary. Forms: Comparative more meretricious; superlative most meretricious where gradation is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.