as in moralizing
marked by or given to preaching moral values
parental opinion was divided on the school's moralistic curriculum
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Recent Examples of moralistic
Similarly moralistic monikers were used in the war in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) and the 2003 invasion of Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom).
—
Harmeet Kaur,
CNN Money,
4 Mar. 2026
The United States went to war in 2001 and 2003 with a very moralistic, very crusading view of war, a very black-and-white view that there were good guys and bad guys, and America would wield the swift sword of justice.
—
Philip Elliott,
Time,
10 Jan. 2026
To rebuild a consensus, politicians must thus appeal to these swing voters by eschewing moralistic and globalist rhetoric.
—
Foreign Affairs,
16 Dec. 2025
Taken together, these triumphal and tragic elements constitute the ingredients for an epic historical narrative that defies all moralistic categories, a story rooted in the coexistence of grandeur and failure, brilliance and blindness, grace and sin.
—
Literary Hub,
28 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for moralistic
Harmeet Kaur,
CNN Money,
4 Mar. 2026
The United States went to war in 2001 and 2003 with a very moralistic, very crusading view of war, a very black-and-white view that there were good guys and bad guys, and America would wield the swift sword of justice.
—
Philip Elliott,
Time,
10 Jan. 2026
To rebuild a consensus, politicians must thus appeal to these swing voters by eschewing moralistic and globalist rhetoric.
—
Foreign Affairs,
16 Dec. 2025
Taken together, these triumphal and tragic elements constitute the ingredients for an epic historical narrative that defies all moralistic categories, a story rooted in the coexistence of grandeur and failure, brilliance and blindness, grace and sin.
—
Literary Hub,
28 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for moralistic
Recent Examples of Synonyms for moralistic
Adjective
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Most of the roughly 200 episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger have the moralizing flavor of after-school specials, albeit weirdly violent ones.
Adjective
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Navy excels at untangling human emotions and picking through them without being didactic or moralistic.
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Yet Dupieux doesn’t stage any of this in a didactic or judgmental way.
Cite this Entry
“Moralistic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/moralistic. Accessed 27 Jun. 2026.
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