1
as in moralizing
marked by or given to preaching moral values
a sententious crank who has written countless letters to the editor about the decline in family values
Synonyms & Similar Words
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2
as in concise
marked by the use of few words to convey much information or meaning
memoirs that are filled with sententious observations on love, marriage, and happiness
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of sententious
This conclusion will shock anyone who knows Twain only through his writing, in which the author is wise and witty and, above all, devastating in his portrayal of frauds, cretins, and sententious bores.
—
Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 9 May 2025
Audiences have no choice but to exist in the theatrical moment, without recourse to linear logic, sententious language or psychological epiphanies.
—Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 16 Mar. 2025
This is a bracing, even novel, perspective on a war whose film depictions so often traffic in sententious Greatest Generation platitudes.
—Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 25 Oct. 2024
Without the wit inherent in an epigram, a sententious formulation becomes a mere adage, aphorism, apothegm, gnome, maxim, or saw.
—Bryan A. Garner, National Review, 15 Sep. 2022
Instead each event—from lethal accidents to vicious murders to Category 5 hurricanes—is immediately sorted into its prelabeled moral narrative file, each one full of similarly useful sententious parables.
—Gerard Baker, WSJ, 30 May 2022
Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 9 May 2025
Audiences have no choice but to exist in the theatrical moment, without recourse to linear logic, sententious language or psychological epiphanies.
—Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 16 Mar. 2025
This is a bracing, even novel, perspective on a war whose film depictions so often traffic in sententious Greatest Generation platitudes.
—Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 25 Oct. 2024
Without the wit inherent in an epigram, a sententious formulation becomes a mere adage, aphorism, apothegm, gnome, maxim, or saw.
—Bryan A. Garner, National Review, 15 Sep. 2022
Instead each event—from lethal accidents to vicious murders to Category 5 hurricanes—is immediately sorted into its prelabeled moral narrative file, each one full of similarly useful sententious parables.
—Gerard Baker, WSJ, 30 May 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sententious
Adjective
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Most of the roughly 200 episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger have the moralizing flavor of after-school specials, albeit weirdly violent ones.—
Chris Klimek,
The Atlantic,
23 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Fuentes offers a more concise gloss.—
Antonia Hitchens,
New Yorker,
6 Apr. 2026
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Guidance should be timely, concise, and delivered in plain language.—
Charles J. Lockwood,
STAT,
31 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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There was a brief ceasefire in the country that year, but it was brokered by the United Nations, not Epstein.—
Miami Herald,
Miami Herald,
8 Apr. 2026
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Three current council members, including Hillary Shields, congratulated Lopez in brief remarks at his party.—
Nathan Pilling,
Kansas City Star,
8 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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The myth found its most enduring literary form in the Georgics (37–30 bce), a didactic poem on agriculture by the Roman poet Virgil.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
1 Apr. 2026
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These themes are not presented in a literal or didactic way but are embedded within the material and spatial experience.—
Olga Garcia-Mayoral,
Miami Herald,
31 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Such rights obviously do not include summary execution at sea.—
Mary Ellen O'Connell,
The Conversation,
4 Sep. 2025
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Not surprisingly, given the risk of summary execution, many had initial doubts.—
Yossi Melman,
ProPublica,
7 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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The radiologist’s case is the most instructive example on offer.—
Nick Lichtenberg,
Fortune,
7 Apr. 2026
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However much the young Hatmaker had in common with Waters, though, their lives seem likely to trace two very different arcs—ones instructive about both American Christianity and the wider debate over what a good life looks like for women.—
Emma Green,
New Yorker,
6 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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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.—
Kyle Chayka,
New Yorker,
2 Apr. 2026
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Good intentions — and handsome animation — aside, Forevergreen is ultimately too maudlin and moralistic to rank it much higher than this.—
Joe Reid,
Vulture,
10 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Sententious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sententious. Accessed 11 Apr. 2026.
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