Word Study
sanctimonious
CIDE DICTIONARY
sanctimonious, a. [See Sanctimony.].
- Possessing sanctimony; holy; sacred; saintly. Shak. [1913 Webster]
- Making a show of sanctity; affecting saintliness; hypocritically devout or pious. Shak. [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
sanctimonious, adj. making a show of sanctity or piety.
Derivative
sanctimoniously adv. sanctimoniousness n. sanctimony n.
Etymology
L sanctimonia sanctity (as SAINT)
THESAURUS
sanctimonious
Pecksniffian, Quakerish, Tartuffian, Tartuffish, Victorian, affected, canting, censorious, deceiving, demure, false, fanatical, goody, goody-goody, hidebound, holier-than-thou, hypocritic, hypocritical, insincere, mealy-mouthed, mealymouthed, mid-Victorian, narrow, oily, old-maidish, overdevout, overmodest, overreligious, overrighteous, overzealous, pecksniffian, pharisaic, pharisaical, pharisean, pietistic, pious, priggish, prim, prudish, puritanical, sanctified, self-righteous, simon-pure, smug, sniveling, snuffling, stiff-necked, straitlaced, stuffy, ultrareligious, unctuous, zealotic, zealousROGET THESAURUS
sanctimonious
Impiety
N impiety, sin, irreverence, profaneness, profanity, profanation, blasphemy, desecration, sacrilege, scoffing, hypocrisy, pietism, cant, pious fraud, lip devotion, lip service, lip reverence, misdevotion, formalism, austerity, sanctimony, sanctimoniousness, pharisaism, precisianism, sabbatism, sabbatarianism, odium theologicum, sacerdotalism, bigotry blue laws, hardening, backsliding, declension, perversion, reprobation, sinner, scoffer, blasphemer, sacrilegist, sabbath breaker, worldling, hypocrite, Tartufe, Mawworm, bigot, saint, Pharisee, sabbatarian, formalist, methodist, puritan, pietist, precisian, religionist, devotee, ranter, fanatic, juramentado, the wicked, the evil, the unjust, the reprobate, sons of men, sons of Belial, the wicked one, children of darkness, impious, irreligious, desecrating, profane, irreverent, sacrilegious, blasphemous, un-hallowed, un-sanctified, un-regenerate, hardened, perverted, reprobate, hypocritical, canting, pietistical, sanctimonious, unctuous, pharisaical, overrighteous, righteous over much, bigoted, fanatical, priest-ridden, under the mask of religion, under the cloak of religion, under the pretense of religion, under the form of religion, under the guise of religion, giovane santo diavolo vecchio.For further exploring for "sanctimonious" in Webster Dictionary Online