hagiographic

adjective

ha·​gio·​graph·​ic ˌha-gē-ə-ˈgra-fik How to pronounce hagiographic (audio)
ˌhā-,
-jē-
variants or less commonly hagiographical
1
: of, relating to, or being hagiography
especially : excessively flattering
a hagiographic biography
2
: of or relating to the Hagiographa

Examples of hagiographic in a Sentence

a hagiographic portrait of one of the pioneers of the automotive age
Recent Examples on the Web Advertisement Rather than painting a hagiographic portrait of these designers, the series takes an unflinching look at their activities during the Nazi occupation of France, when everyone — even those now celebrated as paragons of taste and style — made painful choices in order to survive. Meredith Blake, Los Angeles Times, 14 Feb. 2024 Tim Ballard, the anti-trafficking activist whose purported rescues of abducted children inspired the film, basked in its hagiographic glow. Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 14 Dec. 2023 Even in 1992, post-colonial sentiment was such that Scott’s treatment seemed weirdly hagiographic. Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 6 Nov. 2023 Russian missile strike kills at least 10 in Lviv, far from front line This week’s hagiographic effort was a mawkish video released by the Kremlin on Tuesday of Putin meeting an 8-year-old Derbent girl summoned to his office. Robyn Dixon, Washington Post, 8 July 2023 All this is well known, yet Ali’s examination remains an important corrective to the hagiographic praise that Churchill receives to this day. Tariq Ali, Foreign Affairs, 28 Feb. 2023 Party presses published hagiographic accounts of his life. Time, 16 June 2023 That unproven rhetoric has already become canon for Trump’s acolytes; even Trump’s rivals for the 2024 nomination have come to his defense, realizing so many Republicans are immune to new information about Trump that would dent their hagiographic worship of his movement. Philip Elliott, Time, 14 June 2023 Its structure is too often sloppy, with uneasy transitions from biography to personal digression; its tone is occasionally treacly; its treatment of Converse is hagiographic. Jeremy Lybarger, The New Republic, 24 Apr. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hagiographic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1652, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Time Traveler
The first known use of hagiographic was circa 1652

Dictionary Entries Near hagiographic

Cite this Entry

“Hagiographic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hagiographic. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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