sanctimoniousness

noun

Definition of sanctimoniousnessnext
as in affectation

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for sanctimoniousness
  1. affectation
  2. self-satisfaction
  3. self-righteousness
  4. pretentiousness
  5. dishonesty
  6. deception
  7. perfidy
  8. pretension
Noun
  • Assemble a scrapbook or photo album to curate your personal affectations, trinkets, and memories.
    — Lisa Stardust, Vogue, 26 July 2026
  • The steering wheel is flat at the top and bottom—a race-car affectation that feels correct in here—and has a button for the Boost function and another to adjust the aero, but is otherwise refreshingly simple.
    — Jason Barlow, Robb Report, 7 July 2026
Definition of affectation
Noun
  • The situation gets even worse once Bonnie’s concerned parents try to connect their daughter with friends by buying her a Lilypad, a child-appropriate smart tablet in frog-like casing, voiced with slappably perky self-satisfaction by Greta Lee.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 16 June 2026
  • After 50 minutes of self-satisfaction, the hero fades serenely into a sunset that Dudamel made miraculously mystical.
    — Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, 3 June 2026
Definition of self-satisfaction
Noun
  • Although humanity’s salvation may appear to come in fits and starts, God’s healing influence always penetrates and gets through callous self-righteousness and indifference.
    — Mark Swinney, Christian Science Monitor, 21 July 2026
  • But Flynn also oozes sniveling self-righteousness while hotly defending and petitioning for childhood innocence (amusing hints emerge that the daughter is a somewhat lazy and dim underachiever).
    — Christopher Smith, Oc Register, 7 Apr. 2026
Definition of self-righteousness
Noun
  • Gabrielle and Katerina credit the enduring appeal of Dan Tana’s to its persistent lack of pretentiousness.
    — Maddie Connors, Los Angeles Times, 14 July 2026
  • Advertisement Jones uses his antihero’s blunt self-appraisals to avoid the pretentiousness endemic to stories about artists.
    — Judy Berman, Time, 2 June 2026
Definition of pretentiousness
Noun
  • No interest in the contradictions, the hypocrisy, the inappropriate media friendships, the dishonesty about lockdowns, the lab leak, or masks.
    — Ian Miller OutKick, FOXNews.com, 28 July 2026
  • The detective-heroines (and especially the actress-detectives) in this canon are careful about how performance might be extended to social duplicity, dishonesty, and fraud—but the lady criminals of Victorian detective fiction cross this line easily.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 24 July 2026
Definition of dishonesty
Noun
  • Recent history suggests that the only effective counter to such meddling is a public statement alerting voters to the deception, by some credibly neutral, nonpartisan authority.
    — David D. Kirkpatrick, New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2026
  • Peter trying to have a normal holiday while grieving Tony, Mysterio’s deception, and the post-credits scene that blows Peter’s life apart — all of it feeds into where the new film finds him.
    — Hannah Abraham, Forbes.com, 2 Aug. 2026
Definition of deception
Noun
  • Platner, indeed, has boiled down nearly all political problems to the perfidy of sinister oligarchs.
    — Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic, 6 July 2026
  • If the landing had been faked, the Soviets would have figured it out and would have loved to reveal to the world America’s perfidy.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 May 2026
Definition of perfidy
Noun
  • Like Paul Schrader’s 1982 version of the latter, this is an upscale genre piece whose pretensions towards Art are upfront, starting with a quotation from no less than Schopenhauer.
    — Dennis Harvey, Variety, 30 July 2026
  • At 61, unaligned to any party faction and with no pretensions to the highest office, the Scot would represent little threat to Burnham.
    — Ian King, CNBC, 15 July 2026
Definition of pretension
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.

Browse Nearby Words

sanctimonious
sanctimoniousness
sanctimony
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Cite this Entry

“Sanctimoniousness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sanctimoniousness. Accessed 10 Aug. 2026.

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