PURITANISM Synonyms: 17 Similar and Opposite Words

puritanism

noun

ˈpyu̇r-ə-tᵊn-ˌi-zəm

as in moralism

a tendency to care a great deal about seemly behavior and morals especially in sexual matters the Victorian era was often characterized by a hypocritical puritanism

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Example Sentences

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Recent Examples of puritanism He in turn was denounced for what many thought was an old-fashioned puritanism and what many also thought was jealousy — the production was directed by his successor at Yale, Lloyd Richards. —

Bruce Weber, New York Times, 29 Oct. 2023 And for Black women, in particular, the consequences of stepping out of society’s faux puritanism are always much harsher. —

Tayo Bero, refinery29.com, 21 Dec. 2022 In the English-speaking world, this was a product of puritanism. —

WSJ, 19 May 2022 Today’s triumphant puritanism finds such idleness abhorrent. —

Martin Wolf, Foreign Affairs, 1 July 2015 See All Example Sentences for puritanism

Recent Examples of Synonyms for puritanism

moralism

Noun

During my education, the interwar period in Europe was represented as a renaissance, a cultural rebirth that swept away the staid moralism of the previous century and established an era of artistic invention which kept pace with technological development.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 13 Apr. 2026
To say anything else, many feminists now argue, would be to infantilize her, to subordinate her—to the state, to moralism—rather than acknowledge her mastery of her own body.

— S. C. Cornell, New Yorker, 5 Jan. 2026