as in Victorian
given to or marked by very conservative standards regarding personal behavior or morals
some of the state laws concerning sexual behavior are vestiges of a more puritanical time and are rarely, if ever, enforced
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Recent Examples of puritanical
His subject, Nandy told me, exhibited all the traits of an authoritarian personality: puritanical rigidity, a constricted emotional life, fear of his own passions, and an enormous ego that protected a gnawing insecurity.
—
Andrew Marantz, New Yorker, 28 Apr. 2025
While the #MeToo movement toppled scores of powerful men in Hollywood, in France it was viewed suspiciously by some as a puritanical American import that was tainting an essential part of France’s intellectual and cultural identity.
—Catherine Porter, New York Times, 24 Mar. 2025
Raising the stakes were the injunctions of the Hays Code, whose puritanical rules demanded that studio filmmakers in Hollywood shy away from depictions of interracial romance.
—Mayukh Sen, The Atlantic, 1 Mar. 2025
With their charismatic leadership, organizational skills, puritanical ideology, and internal solidarity, HTS and other militant groups were the unintended beneficiaries.
—Fawaz A. Gerges, Foreign Affairs, 27 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for puritanical
Andrew Marantz, New Yorker, 28 Apr. 2025
While the #MeToo movement toppled scores of powerful men in Hollywood, in France it was viewed suspiciously by some as a puritanical American import that was tainting an essential part of France’s intellectual and cultural identity.
—Catherine Porter, New York Times, 24 Mar. 2025
Raising the stakes were the injunctions of the Hays Code, whose puritanical rules demanded that studio filmmakers in Hollywood shy away from depictions of interracial romance.
—Mayukh Sen, The Atlantic, 1 Mar. 2025
With their charismatic leadership, organizational skills, puritanical ideology, and internal solidarity, HTS and other militant groups were the unintended beneficiaries.
—Fawaz A. Gerges, Foreign Affairs, 27 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for puritanical
Recent Examples of Synonyms for puritanical
Victorian
Adjective
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Old leaky underground pipes are causing a crisis The U.K. has some of the oldest water systems in the world, with parts of the network still dating back to the Victorian era.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
7 July 2025
-
The Fraud by Zadie Smith With her latest novel, Smith uses a Victorian setting to probe the relationship between England and colonial Jamaica.—
Mia Barzilay Freund,
Vogue,
7 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Puritanical.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/puritanical. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025.
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