Haughty looks down on others. Smug looks pleased with itself.
Both words describe someone who is a bit too proud, so children often swap them. The trick is to ask where the person's attention is.
Haughty is about looking down on everyone else. A haughty new girl turns up her nose at the school canteen and will not sit with anyone she thinks is not grand enough. Haughty is cold and distant.
Smug is about being delighted with yourself, in a way that annoys other people. A smug brother who has just won at a board game grins, leans back and says, 'I told you I would win.' He is not looking down on anyone in particular; he is simply far too pleased with himself.
Acting as if you are better than everyone else.
Similar: snooty, proud, smug
Too pleased with yourself in a way that annoys other people.
Similar: self-satisfied, proud, boastful
Character questions often ask what a word tells us about someone. Haughty tells the reader a character thinks they are better than others; smug tells the reader they are self-satisfied, usually about something they have just done. They are different answers.
Definitions and example sentences on this page are the ones a child sees inside Wordrealm, taken from our list of over 1,100 words. It is free to browse, with nothing to sign up for.
Plain-English guides to each test, from the councils’ own pages: Kent Test · Medway Test · Bucks Secondary Transfer Test