as in pious
showing a devotion to God and to a life of virtue
a saintly man who devoted his life to caring for the dying
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Recent Examples of saintly
The relics of the monastery’s saintly founder were on view for public veneration.
—
Therese Cory, The Conversation, 28 Jan. 2025
The saintly and spinsterish nurse Enid spends three sleepless days and nights soul-searching, deciding whether to report a murderer or to pursue a future with him.
—The New Yorker, 27 Jan. 2025
In the show’s first two seasons, Laura’s murder broke open a placid American town—much as a severed ear, in Lynch’s 1986 film, Blue Velvet, famously undermined middle America’s saintly image of itself.
—K. Austin Collins, The Atlantic, 7 Feb. 2025
With saintly patience, my P.T. informed me that my shin bone was in great shape.
—Amy X. Wang, New York Times, 14 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for saintly
Therese Cory, The Conversation, 28 Jan. 2025
The saintly and spinsterish nurse Enid spends three sleepless days and nights soul-searching, deciding whether to report a murderer or to pursue a future with him.
—The New Yorker, 27 Jan. 2025
In the show’s first two seasons, Laura’s murder broke open a placid American town—much as a severed ear, in Lynch’s 1986 film, Blue Velvet, famously undermined middle America’s saintly image of itself.
—K. Austin Collins, The Atlantic, 7 Feb. 2025
With saintly patience, my P.T. informed me that my shin bone was in great shape.
—Amy X. Wang, New York Times, 14 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for saintly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for saintly
Adjective
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The baron and his pious daughter seem at peace with their mutual estrangement until Zsa-zsa suddenly decides to break that habit.—
David Ehrlich,
IndieWire,
18 May 2025
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But while the main character’s mother in that movie was an antagonistic figure, Fatima’s parents are portrayed as kind, not dogmatic or ostentatiously pious.—
Jon Frosch,
HollywoodReporter,
16 May 2025
Adjective
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Has there been a negative response from devout Catholics to you guys at all? Trad Caths are crazy.—
Jason P. Frank,
Vulture,
9 May 2025
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The record that Booker broke belonged to the late South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, a devout segregationist, who spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957.—
Leonard Greene,
New York Daily News,
6 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Some of those details are in opposition to one another – the ancient and the modern, the religious and the secular -particularly in Riyadh.—
Jennifer Maas,
Variety,
27 May 2025
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Mahmood is the daughter of a Russian Jewish mother and an Indian Hindu father, according to past reporting, and grew up around cultural and religious practices from both sides of her family.—
Molly Morrow,
Chicago Tribune,
26 May 2025
Adjective
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Benedict, the Pope emeritus, took a role in the ceremony; some half million devotees of the two sainted Popes filled the piazza and the streets adjoining the Vatican.—
Paul Elie,
New Yorker,
21 Apr. 2025
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That’s when Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft , Nvidia and Tesla divorced themselves from the rest of the market — or, more accurately, the big institutions filed for divorce on behalf of the sainted seven.—
Jim Cramer,
CNBC,
16 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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There is some irony that the lawmakers working on the bill with preliminary votes on both Saturday and Sunday, the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sabbath, violated the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy.—
New York Daily News Editorial Board,
New York Daily News,
27 May 2025
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The march commemorates Jerusalem Day, which marks Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Mideast war.—
Julia Frankel,
Los Angeles Times,
26 May 2025
Adjective
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Of course, Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron is still a reverent work, leaving out a few messier strands of the man’s life that Miyazaki-heads might be curious about.—
Nicholas Quah,
Vulture,
12 Sep. 2024
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Taylor’s casket, covered with an American flag, was taken through reverent procession in Bell County on May 13 from Temple to the funeral home in Copperas Cove, KXXV reported.—
Kate Linderman,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
14 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Saintly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/saintly. Accessed 5 Jun. 2025.
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