parochial

pa·ro·chi·al

adjective \pə-ˈrō-kē-əl\

Definition of PAROCHIAL

1

: of or relating to a church parish

2

: of or relating to a parish as a unit of local government

3

: confined or restricted as if within the borders of a parish : limited in range or scope (as to a narrow area or region) : provincial, narrow

— pa·ro·chi·al·ly \-kē-ə-lē\ adverb

Examples of PAROCHIAL

1. our pastor and other parochial leaders
2. voters worried about their own parochial concerns
3. It has never been clearer that the country's best self is a global inheritance, its worst a parochial self-certainty. —Jedediah Purdy, New York Times Book Review, 22 Feb. 2009
4. There is no patience for the parochial, the small-time, the stay-in-place, not in Los Angeles. —Richard Hoffer, Sports Illustrated, 8 Sept. 2008
5. … during the mid-1780s, Madison had two great goals. The first was to inculcate an enlightened sense of national interest in legislators whose political instincts were innately parochial. —Jack N. Rakove, Original Meanings …, 1996

Origin of PAROCHIAL

Middle English parochiall, from Anglo-French parochial, from Late Latin parochialis, from parochia parish — more at parish

First Known Use: 14th century

Related to PAROCHIAL

Synonyms

illiberal, insular, Lilliputian, little, narrow-minded, narrow, petty, picayune, provincial, sectarian, small, small-minded

Antonyms

broad-minded, catholic, cosmopolitan, liberal, open, open-minded, receptive, tolerant

Related Words

inflexible, ironbound, obdurate, obstinate, rigid, set, stubborn, unyielding, wrongheaded; bigoted, intolerant; biased, discriminating, discriminatory, jaundiced, one-sided, partial, partisan, prejudiced; brass bound, hidebound, old-fashioned, reactionary, stodgy, straitlaced (or straightlaced), stuffy; dogmatic (also dogmatical), opinionated, opinionative; limited; hick, unsophisticated

Near Antonyms

impartial, nonpartisan, objective, unbiased, unprejudiced; freethinking

Other Christian Religious Terms

Pentateuch, blasphemy, curate, doxology, eremite, iconoclasm, liturgy, orison, pneuma, reliquary