MORALLY Synonyms: 23 Similar and Opposite Words

morally

adverb

Definition of morally

as in innocently

with purity of thought and deed a politician who is in the habit of acting legally without behaving morally

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of morally Its students arrive morally outraged, a priori puritans, while its professors are enervated and dissatisfied. — Zain Khalid, Vulture, 1 Oct. 2026 There are games, tests and temptations designed to test the competitors physically, mentally, and morally before one walks away with the prize. — Peter White, Deadline, 29 Sep. 2026 The documentary condemns The Swan for manufacturing reality, while offering its own more morally satisfying reality. — Danielle Pergament, Allure, 29 Sep. 2026 Unfortunately, the results, while splashily entertaining, feel helium-light instead of morally weighty, with each encounter at once high-stakes and emotionally obvious. — Emily Nussbaum, New Yorker, 24 Sep. 2026 Matthew tries to take his son hunting, to which Woody morally objects. — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 23 Sep. 2026 But some women went above and beyond morally, intellectually and materially supporting the war effort. — Phaedra Trethan, USA Today, 17 Sep. 2026 Peck walked away with a new appreciation of the range of his grandfather, who was best known for playing heroic and morally upright roles in films such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Cape Fear and The Omen. — Scott Huver, PEOPLE, 15 Sep. 2026 Eager to make the material hers, the helmer had the idea of focusing on Anne Sofie, the mother with the most questionable behaviour, morally and ethically. — Annika Pham, Variety, 10 Sep. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for morally

Adverb

The scoring started innocently enough, Stockton marching the team 79 yards on an 11-play workmanlike touchdown drive.

— Mike Griffith, AJC.com, 27 Sep. 2026
Widowed and nearing 60, Tony enjoys a quiet but contented routine, suddenly injected with anxiety when, during the school day, one of his young pupils innocently notes that his right hand looks frozen.

— Guy Lodge, Variety, 17 Sep. 2026

Definition of innocently

Adverb

Recent studies have proposed that these fluctuations are not purely random but occur within what is known as a chaotic attractor — a set of possible storm states within which the hurricane can evolve unpredictably.

— Chanh Kieu, Washington Post, 2 Oct. 2026
The only downside is that he’s seen as a purely comic figure by some in the industry.

— Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 2 Oct. 2026

Definition of purely

Adverb

Areas at high risk of flooding and where few people are insured tend to be poorer, experts said, as are areas where FEMA's flood maps don't properly convey the severity of the risk or mandate that enough people buy coverage.

— MICHAEL PHILLIS, Arkansas Online, 30 Sep. 2026
Suitcases rolling away, too many bags and handles not fitting the hand properly all became part of the design brief for Series 3.

— Kanika Talwar, Footwear News, 29 Sep. 2026

Definition of properly

Adverb

The solution is a lot of morphine and a lot of rest, both of which Cathy undertakes with Adam constantly (and chastely) by her side.

— Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 1 Oct. 2026
Take The Music Lesson, a study of a young woman playing the virginal, closely watched by a gentleman, which Graham-Dixon reads as a depiction of Collegiants chastely performing and singing psalms.

— Clare Bucknell, Harpers Magazine, 23 June 2026

Definition of chastely

Adverb

Some of us virtuously recycle items that will be transported across the world to smother island nations in single-use plastic bags and water bottles, milk jugs, yogurt tubs, pet food and potato chip bags, Styrofoam meat trays, Coke bottles, Amazon mailing envelopes, and fast-food wrappers.

— Caroline Fraser, The New York Review of Books, 4 Apr. 2026
The glorious sweep of progress toward Roman civilization and prosperity means the end of an idyllic, virtuously rustic Golden Age.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 3 Sep. 2025

Definition of virtuously

Adverb

Witnesses’ fumbling looks bad by comparison, and Ossoff sounds righteously angry without being rageful.

— David A. Graham, The Atlantic, 24 July 2026
With raping, raving misogynists in the highest offices and loudest cultural bandwidths of the world, women of all classes have cause to be righteously filled with rage, betrayal, and disappointment.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 16 June 2026

Definition of righteously

Browse Nearby Words

moralizing

morally

morals

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“Morally.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/morally. Accessed 5 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of morally

adverb

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