as in moralistic
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Recent Examples of pharisaical
Although he was noted for being supremely humble, our Way-shower, Christ Jesus, took strong antagonistic grounds against harsh pharisaical doctrine.
—
Jan Keeler Vincent,
Christian Science Monitor,
19 Mar. 2025
Lists are no substitute for criticism, but those who take them as inimical to criticism are pharisaical.
—
Richard Brody,
The New Yorker,
6 Dec. 2022
David and Samuel explore the U.S. energy sector and evaluate what the future holds in an ESG landscape that has done its very best to bring economic incoherence to its pharisaical agenda.
—
Andrew Stuttaford,
National Review,
16 Jan. 2022
Jan Keeler Vincent,
Christian Science Monitor,
19 Mar. 2025
Lists are no substitute for criticism, but those who take them as inimical to criticism are pharisaical.
—
Richard Brody,
The New Yorker,
6 Dec. 2022
David and Samuel explore the U.S. energy sector and evaluate what the future holds in an ESG landscape that has done its very best to bring economic incoherence to its pharisaical agenda.
—
Andrew Stuttaford,
National Review,
16 Jan. 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pharisaical
Adjective
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Navy excels at untangling human emotions and picking through them without being didactic or moralistic.
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Last year, a YouTube channel called Akhbar Enfejari (Explosive News) began posting a variety of digital content with a political and moralistic bent.
Adjective
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There are few things in this world more sanctimonious and hypocritical than left-wing sportswriters getting on their faux moral high horse.
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That’s when the movie takes a direction that’s both maudlin in the true sense of the word and ultimately even sanctimonious regarding the heroine’s sudden redemption.
Adjective
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However, this distinction did more than pit pious Americans against an atheist enemy.
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In Wake-Keeper (2026), a roughly four-by-five-foot canvas, a pious man draped in the red cloth of traditional Ghanaian funeral attire sits on a stool with his hands clasped, his body facing the left side of the frame.
Adjective
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Or means that any comments are supposedly hypocritical.
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Earlier this month, Matsui’s campaign came after Vang for taking corporate donations from Sacramento-area businesses during her city council campaigns, implying that Vang’s vows to not accept money from corporate PACs in her congressional bid is hypocritical.
Adjective
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There is nothing worse than a self-righteous Big J journalist.
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This admission is met with varying levels of shock and dismay from her three companions, ranging from nervous equivocation from her fiancé to self-righteous anger from Rachel.
Adjective
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And yet, to holier-than-thou doctors like young Ogilvie (Lucas Iverson), Howard is a cautionary tale: a glutton who can’t control himself, a rube who hasn’t heard of Ozempic, and a lazy slouch who can’t manage to drag himself to aqua aerobics.
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But there’s a line between analysis and holier-than-thou bloviation.
Adjective
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Not everyone believes, however, that the line is insincere.
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And so, open door policies rarely fail because leaders are insincere.
Adjective
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The unctuous and sweet char siu pork jowl is interspersed with green apple pressed with lime and ginger for a bright and crisp counter to the fatty pig.
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Made with the unctuous 8-percent-fat milk of the water buffalo—animals that may have arrived in the area via the Normans by way of Sicily, or perhaps by the Goths coming from Central Asia—buffalo mozzarella has been produced at least since the twelfth century.
Cite this Entry
“Pharisaical.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pharisaical. Accessed 1 Jul. 2026.
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