sanctimonious
adjective
G. B. Shaw
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How Shakespeare Used Sanctimonious
There’s nothing sacred about sanctimonious—at least not anymore. But in the early 1600s, the English adjective was still sometimes used to describe someone truly holy or pious, a sense at an important remove from today’s use describing someone who acts or behaves as though they are morally superior to others. (The now-obsolete “pious” sense recalls the meaning of the word’s Latin parent, sanctimonia, meaning “holiness” or “sanctity.”) Shakespeare used both the “holy” and “holier-than-thou” senses of sanctimonious in his work, referring in The Tempest to the “sanctimonious” (that is, “holy”) ceremonies of marriage, and in Measure for Measure to “the sanctimonious pirate that went to sea with the Ten Commandments but scraped one out of the table.” (Apparently, the pirate found the restriction on stealing inconvenient.)
Examples of sanctimonious in a Sentence
David Polansky, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 12 July 2024
Nope — those three sanctimonious defenders of our democracy are all down with the deep-state’s diminution of our democracy.
—Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 24 June 2024
There’s never anything sanctimonious or preachy about it.
—Stephanie Zacharek, TIME, 21 June 2024
Of all the pillars of internet content, surely one of the strongest is the genre where people outline their morning routine in grave and sanctimonious detail.
—Constance Grady, Vox, 6 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for sanctimonious 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sanctimonious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near sanctimonious
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“Sanctimonious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sanctimonious. Accessed 27 Jul. 2024.
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