it is better to be smarter than you appear than to appear smarter than you are
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
It's more advantageous to be understated and competent than pretentious and ignorant
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Tốt hơn là khiêm tốn và có năng lực hơn là tự phụ và thiếu kiến thức
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “it is better to be smarter than you appear than to appear smarter than you are” mean?
It's more advantageous to be understated and competent than pretentious and ignorant
Is “it is better to be smarter than you appear than to appear smarter than you are” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.