sanctimonious
adjectiveGraduateELO 1,400SATGRECAT
DEFINITION
excessively or hypocritically pious
WEBSTER'S 1913
Possessing sanctimony; holy; sacred; saintly.
ETYMOLOGY
Latin sanctus (holy) + -monious (characteristic of)
SYNONYMS
IN LITERATURE
“At this thought she tried to release her hand, but he would not let it go; for the deaconess had come close to Agatha, and, in a tone of sanctimonious wrath, desired her to quit this scene.”
— Georg Ebers, The Historical Romances of Georg Ebers
IN USE
“This is a little too sanctimonious a fraud to meet my old-fashioned ideas."Alpheus T.”
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