parochial

adjective pa·ro·chi·al \ pə-ˈrō-kē-əl \

Updated on: 11 Apr 2018

Definition of parochial

1 : of or relating to a church parish

our pastor and other parochial leaders

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

parochial authorities serve the inhabitants of Louisiana's parishes

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

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parochially

play \pə-ˈrō-kē-ə-lē\ adverb

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Examples of parochial in a Sentence

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
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
… 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
our pastor and other parochial leaders
voters worried about their own parochial concerns

Recent Examples of parochial from the Web

And in Philadelphia, the parochial goals of city government must be pushed aside so the revenue increases coming from higher commercial real estate taxes are spent on making the city more competitive.

— joel naroff, Philly.com, "The reason a CEO is asking to have his business taxed more," 4 Apr. 2018
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia said its high schools and parochial elementary schools in the city also will open on a two-hour delay Thursday.

— michael boren, Philly.com, "Philadelphia weather updates: Latest on snow, forecast, travel, closings," 21 Mar. 2018
But it has been dragged ever lower into the mire by Congressional special interests that are parochial in the extreme.

— Newsweek, "Amazing Photos of Bioluminescent Phytoplankton," 14 Mar. 2018
The largest budget in Florida history contains dozens of parochial projects in lawmakers’ districts.

— steve bousquet, miamiherald, "$89 billion budget is approved in overtime session for Legislature | Miami Herald," 11 Mar. 2018
Other programs depend on tax credits that allow individuals and corporations to make donations to a voucher fund or families to deduct some of the cost of private or parochial tuition and pay fewer annual state taxes.

— peg tyre, Scientific American, "Trump Administration Advances School Vouchers Despite Scant Evidence," 1 Aug. 2017
In Chang’s excellent book, what emerges is a Silicon Valley that for all its global reach is parochial and steeped in brazen misbehavior.

— San Francisco Chronicle, "Recommended reading, March 11," 8 Mar. 2018
This week Republicans abandoned a sensible reform to air-traffic control, and the episode shows how parochial interests have corroded the political process.

— the editorial board, WSJ, "Failure to Launch in Congress," 2 Mar. 2018
The parochial interests of members whose bases were on the chopping block consistently skunked the endeavor.

— jay cost, National Review, "Good Riddance to IPAB, the Independent Payment Advisory Board," 12 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'parochial.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

In the Greek New Testament, the word paroikia means "temporary residence." (It's from the Greek word for "stranger" - paroikos.) Early Christians used this designation for their colonies because they considered heaven their real home. But temporary or not, these Christian colonies became more organized as time went on. Thus, in Late Latin, parochia became the designation for a group of Christians in a given area under the leadership of one pastor - what we came to call a parish in the 14th century. Both parish and its related adjective parochial were borrowed at that time directly from Middle French terms that had been derived from the Late Latin. We didn't begin to use parochial in its "narrow" sense until the mid-19th century.