PURITAN Synonyms: 18 Similar and Opposite Words

puritan

noun

ˈpyu̇r-ə-tən

Definition of puritan

as in moralist

a person who is greatly concerned with seemly behavior and morality especially regarding sexual matters some of the town's puritans still maintain that sex education has no place in the schools

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Recent Examples of puritan Austere antiquity is in constant conflict with more sensual, modern impulses — a tension that feels productive applied to a story of the Shakers, puritans whom time has proven too pure for this world. — Guy Lodge, Variety, 1 Sep. 2025 The beat-bread-and-fry blueprint is so well-established that even a dab of mustard is a dicey proposition among pork puritans. — Bradley Hohulin, IndyStar, 10 Mar. 2025 Centuries after being burned at the stake, a witch named Jennifer (Veronica Lake) magically reappears and tries to torment the descendant of the puritan who led the charge against her — only to fall in love with him. — Clark Collis, EW.com, 18 Oct. 2024 Naysayers and scene puritans are too late to tear down Turnstile; the Baltimore band heard it all before its third album even dropped anyway. — Pitchfork, 1 Oct. 2024 See All Example Sentences for puritan

Recent Examples of Synonyms for puritan

Noun

Twenty years ago, moralists tried to strong arm a Texas private school into removing Annie Proulx’s sensitive story Brokeback Mountain from its curriculum.

— SPIN Team, SPIN, 22 June 2026
Carney is a moralist, a filmmaker of fidelity—and of renunciation, depicting the romantic near-misses and what-ifs that his characters leave behind.

— Richard Brody, New Yorker, 29 May 2026

Definition of moralist

Noun

What the spot tries to do, convince folks in this left-leaning redoubt to be venturesome and vote for Hilton, is not the least offensive, though your friendly political columnist, hardly a prude, found the execution a bit, well, icky.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 7 Oct. 2026
But that brief flash of cartoon baby nudity continues to bother prudes, decades after the book’s first run.

— Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 5 Oct. 2026

Definition of prude

Noun

Past practice and legal tradition relegated the act, which Congress passed at the behest of Anthony Comstock, one of the outstanding bluenoses of American history, to the scrap heap long ago.

— Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 25 June 2024
Key to these plans is the Comstock Act, the 19th-century anti-vice law named for the crusading bluenose Anthony Comstock, who persecuted Margaret Sanger, arrested thousands, and boasted of driving 15 of his targets to suicide.

— Michelle Goldberg, The Mercury News, 11 Apr. 2024

Definition of bluenose

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purists

puritan

puritanical

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“Puritan.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/puritan. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of puritan

noun

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