Pious

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: pi=ous

CIDE DICTIONARY

Pious, a. [L. pius: cf. F. pieux.].

•  Of or pertaining to piety; exhibiting piety; reverential; dutiful; religious; devout; godly.  [1913 Webster]

  "Where was the martial brother's pious care?"  [1913 Webster]
•  Practiced under the pretext of religion; prompted by mistaken piety; as, pious errors; pious frauds.  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Godly; devout; religious; righteous.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Pious, adj.
1 devout; religious.
2 hypocritically virtuous; sanctimonious.
3 dutiful.

Idiom

pious fraud a deception intended to benefit those deceived, esp. religiously.

Derivative

piously adv. piousness n.

Etymology

L pius dutiful, pious

THESAURUS

Pious

Christian, Christianlike, Christianly, God-fearing, Tartuffian, Tartuffish, adoring, affected, angelic, assured, believing, canting, certain, confident, convinced, cultish, cultist, cultistic, dedicated, devoted, devout, dogmatic, doubtless, dutiful, faithful, false, fideistic, fraudulent, godlike, godly, good, goody, goody-goody, holier-than-thou, holy, hypocritical, impressed with, insincere, mealy-mouthed, mealymouthed, moral, oily, persuaded, pharisaic, pietistic, pistic, positive, prayerful, pretended, priestly, religious, reverent, reverential, right-minded, saintly, sanctified, sanctimonious, satisfied, secure, self-righteous, seraphic, smarmy, sniveling, sold on, solemn, spiritual, sure, theistic, unctuous, under the impression, undoubtful, undoubting, venerational, venerative, virtuous, worshipful

ROGET THESAURUS

Pious

Piety

N piety, religion, theism, faith, religiousness, holiness, saintship, religionism, sanctimony, reverence, humility, veneration, devotion, prostration, grace, unction, edification, sanctity, sanctitude, consecration, spiritual existence, odor of sanctity, beauty of holiness, theopathy, beatification, adoption, regeneration, conversion, justification, sanctification, salvation, inspiration, bread of life, Body and Blood of Christ, believer, convert, theist, Christian, devotee, pietist, the good, the righteous, the just, the believing, the elect, Saint, Madonna, Notre Dame, Our Lady, the children of God, the children of the Kingdom, the children of the light, pious, religious, devout, devoted, reverent, godly, heavenly- minded, humble, pure, holy, spiritual, pietistic, saintly, saint-like, seraphic, sacred, solemn, believing, faithful, Christian, Catholic, elected, adopted, justified, sanctified, regenerated, inspired, consecrated, converted, unearthly, not of the earth, ne vile fano, pure-eyed Faith, thou hovering angel girt with golden wings.