What does braggart mean?
A braggart is a person who talks boastfully and excessively about their own achievements, abilities, or possessions, often in a way that others find tiresome or off-putting. The word carries an unambiguously negative connotation: no one is ever complimented by being called a braggart. It derives from the verb 'brag' combined with the suffix '-ard', which English borrowed from French and which typically signals excess or disapproval — the same ending found in 'drunkard' and 'coward'. In modern usage, 'braggart' functions chiefly as a noun ('the office braggart'), though it can occasionally serve as an adjective meaning boastful. It sits slightly on the formal side of the vocabulary spectrum, making it common in literature, journalism, and criticism, while casual speech more often reaches for 'show-off' or 'blowhard'. Related terms include 'braggadocio', which names boastful talk itself.
nounA person who boasts about their achievements, abilities, or possessions in an annoying or exaggerated way.
- A person who habitually boasts or brags, especially in an irritating way.
"He was such a braggart about his golf game that nobody wanted to play with him anymore."
"Nobody invited Marcus to the reunion; his reputation as a braggart preceded him."
"She dismissed him as a braggart who talked endlessly about deals he had never actually closed."
Regular plural formation.
"The play is full of braggarts, cowards, and fools."
The '-ard' ending in braggart was originally an insult suffix in French — it also gave us 'drunkard' and 'coward'.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of braggart
Braggart comes from the verb 'brag' plus the suffix '-ard', which English adopted from Old French, where it frequently formed pejorative nouns denoting excessive or contemptible behavior. The word appeared in English in the second half of the sixteenth century. Its root, 'brag', is of uncertain ultimate origin but has been part of English since the Middle Ages. The related noun 'braggadocio' was later coined by the poet Edmund Spenser for a boastful character in The Faerie Queene, and now serves mainly to mean empty boasting.
Related word forms
How braggart is actually used
Always derogatory — calling someone a braggart is a criticism, never neutral or complimentary. Slightly formal or literary in tone compared to everyday alternatives like 'show-off'; it can also function as an adjective meaning 'boastful' (as in 'braggart soldiers'), though this use is now somewhat old-fashioned.
Easily confused with braggart
Braggadocio refers to boastful talk or behavior itself (or a fictional swaggering braggart in literature), while braggart is the ordinary word for a real-life person who boasts.