Pretentious is defined as "attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed." What if someone does impress others because they actually do have a greater importance, talent, culture, etc.? What would be a good word to describe such a person?
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2Someone who impresses is usually referred to as impressive. – ElendilTheTall Aug 19 '14 at 6:06
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1You could use "important", "talented", "cultured", etc. – augurar Aug 19 '14 at 6:24
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Won't remarkable do? – Autoresponder Aug 19 '14 at 17:12
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If you don't mind sounding a bit old-timey, then awesome works quite well in many cases. It is outdated in this sense, though. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Sep 18 '14 at 7:15
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You could say "genuinely talented/cultured/etc." if you want to explicitly negate any notion of pretense. "He's not pretentious; he genuinely loves 18th century French poetry." – Rahul Nov 17 '14 at 10:09
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Probably notable conveys the idea:
- worthy of notice; remarkable; outstanding:
- prominent, important, or distinguished; eminent: notable artists.
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If said person is very young we can call them a prodigy
(pl. prodigies) [often with modifier] a young person with exceptional qualities or abilities: a Russian pianist who was a child prodigy in his day.
Older people, i.e. not children, might be refered to as a virtuoso
a person highly skilled in music or another artistic pursuit: a celebrated clarinet virtuoso | [as modifier] virtuoso guitar playing.
a person with a special knowledge of or interest in works of art or curios.
Other words like expert, hot shot, or master can be used too for specific skills.
answered Aug 19 '14 at 6:34
