as in atheistic
not showing proper reverence for the holy or sacred
an impious act that horrified their pious mother
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Recent Examples of impious
Many other traditionalists have made a version of Scruton’s critique, insisting that contemporary art reflects self-indulgent, relativistic, and impious tendencies.
—
Luis Parrales, The Atlantic, 28 Apr. 2026
While no formal announcement has been made to update its longstanding alcohol ban, Andrew Leber of Tulane University said this is in line with the Kingdom’s past approach to such potentially impious reforms.
—Hugh Cameron, MSNBC Newsweek, 9 Dec. 2025
How impious is the title of sacred Majesty applied to a worm, who in the midst of his splendor is crumbling into dust!
—Charles Hilu, Washington Post, 4 Nov. 2025
The only true dictionary is the lost one, the dictionary of the language that perished when the impious tower was built: the original language, God’s language.
—Mariana Dimópulos, Harpers Magazine, 26 Mar. 2025
This game must have seemed profane to the Greeks, or even impious.
—Simone Weil, Harper's Magazine, 2 July 2024
Both narratives, private and public, differently restrict our access, so the ideal historian will need great tact and an impious curiosity.
—James Wood, The New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2023
Luis Parrales, The Atlantic, 28 Apr. 2026
While no formal announcement has been made to update its longstanding alcohol ban, Andrew Leber of Tulane University said this is in line with the Kingdom’s past approach to such potentially impious reforms.
—Hugh Cameron, MSNBC Newsweek, 9 Dec. 2025
How impious is the title of sacred Majesty applied to a worm, who in the midst of his splendor is crumbling into dust!
—Charles Hilu, Washington Post, 4 Nov. 2025
The only true dictionary is the lost one, the dictionary of the language that perished when the impious tower was built: the original language, God’s language.
—Mariana Dimópulos, Harpers Magazine, 26 Mar. 2025
This game must have seemed profane to the Greeks, or even impious.
—Simone Weil, Harper's Magazine, 2 July 2024
Both narratives, private and public, differently restrict our access, so the ideal historian will need great tact and an impious curiosity.
—James Wood, The New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for impious
Adjective
-
His father's death during World War II influenced his pursuit of the ministry even amid the officially atheistic communist regime of the Soviet Union, according to his obituary on the OCU website.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
20 Mar. 2026
-
But there has been a recent rise in secular congregations that explicitly mimic religious organizations and rituals to celebrate atheistic worldviews.—
Jacqui Frost,
The Conversation,
11 Jan. 2024
Adjective
-
In any other context, a house of God smattered with people staring at their phones, trusting AI to speak to them, might feel sacrilegious.—
Andrew R. Chow,
Time,
26 May 2026
-
Call me sacrilegious, but there’s one place that a King’s Hawaiian roll tastes even better than the altar rail, and that’s at the beach.—
Betsy Cribb Watson,
Southern Living,
25 May 2026
Adjective
-
Many of their performances are blasphemous, and their work only displays hate and mockery of Catholics and the Christian faith.—
Jon Root OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
6 June 2026
-
This way of approaching the story would help make its portrait of Jesus all the more human, and, to some, all the more blasphemous.—
Isaac Butler,
New Yorker,
30 May 2026
Adjective
-
Its secular cast was not its only imprint.—
Adam Gopnik,
New Yorker,
8 June 2026
-
At least, not according to received wisdom in the secular twenty-first-century West.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 June 2026
Adjective
-
For young men feeling dejected by the public conversation about toxic masculinity, Tate’s celebrations of manhood were galvanizing, and his mocking assaults on feminism felt bracingly irreverent.—
Heidi Blake,
New Yorker,
8 June 2026
-
Bernardi prefers to craft a new panto each year but the enthusiastic response to the company’s irreverent 2022 reworking of the Charles Dickens classic, both from audiences and from the actors who were in it, led to this revival.—
Christopher Arnott,
Hartford Courant,
8 June 2026
Adjective
-
Glenn Turner, the former owner of a pagan and metaphysical shop, is running as a member of the Green Party.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
1 May 2026
-
For decades, the Georgia Guidestones were nothing more than kitschy roadside Americana – a curiosity people visited for fun, intrigue, and the occasional pagan ritual.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
21 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Impious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/impious. Accessed 12 Jun. 2026.
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