affectation

an affectation of calm.

He made an affectation of indifference.

the affectation of a man who measures every word for effect.

She is sincere and quite without affectation.

a mock-heroic farce that burlesques the affectations of Restoration heroic drama.

The affectations in the way she speaks annoyed me.

simple but grandiose architecture); it often suggests pretentiousness, affectation, or pompousness (

He speaks with a British accent, but that is just an affectation because he’s not British.

an air of authority. In the plural, however, it suggests affectation and especially a wish to seem more important than is actually the case: