What does bombast mean?
Bombast is grandiose, inflated language that strives to sound impressive while conveying little real substance. It describes the kind of high-flown rhetoric found in pompous political speeches, overwrought public addresses, and self-important prose — words chosen for their sound rather than their sense. The term carries an unmistakably negative connotation: to call something bombast is to dismiss it as hollow posturing. Commonly paired with adjectives like 'empty', 'sheer', or 'mere' in phrases such as 'empty bombast' or 'political bombast', the word appears frequently in political commentary, theatre criticism, and literary analysis, where critics puncture speakers or writers who mistake volume and ornament for meaning. Its derivatives include the adjective 'bombastic' and the adverb 'bombastically'. Interestingly, bombast originally referred to a soft cotton padding used to swell out garments — a fitting ancestor for a word now devoted to speech that is all padding and no substance.
nounGrandiose, inflated, or pretentious language that sounds impressive but lacks substance or genuine meaning.
- Pompous or inflated language intended to sound impressive but lacking real substance.
"The senator's speech was pure bombast, full of lofty promises and empty rhetoric."
"The CEO's keynote was dismissed by critics as little more than corporate bombast."
"Behind all the bombast of his campaign speeches lay a remarkably thin set of policy ideas."
Bombast is a mass noun and has no conventional plural form.
"His speeches are nothing but bombast."
Bombast once meant cotton padding used to stuff jackets — the word for puffy clothing became the word for puffy speech.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bombast
Bombast entered English in the sixteenth century from French 'bombace', meaning cotton wadding used to pad and enlarge clothing. That French term traces back through medieval Latin 'bambax' to Greek 'bambax' (or 'pyros bambax'), ultimately borrowed from a Persian source for raw cotton. Over time, the idea of padded, swollen fabric transferred metaphorically to padded, swollen language, so by the seventeenth century bombast had acquired its modern sense of inflated, pretentious speech. The adjective 'bombastic' developed from this later figurative use.
Related word forms
How bombast is actually used
Bombast is always pejorative — it implies criticism of speech as showy without substance. It is a mass noun with no common plural form. The register is somewhat formal or literary; the word is most at home in reviews, political commentary, and criticism of public speaking.
Easily confused with bombast
Bombastic is the adjective form describing speech that is pompous or inflated, while bombast is the noun referring to such language itself.