sanctimonious
adjective
G. B. Shaw
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How Shakespeare Used Sanctimonious
There's nothing sacred about "sanctimonious"—at least not any more. But in the early 1600s, the English adjective was still sometimes used to describe someone truly holy or pious (a sense that recalls the meaning of the word's Latin parent, sanctimonia). Shakespeare used both the "holy" and "holier-than-thou" senses in his work, referring in The Tempest to the "sanctimonious" (that is, "holy") ceremonies of marriage, and in Measure for Measure to describe "the sanctimonious pirate that went to sea with the Ten Commandments but scraped one out of the table." (Apparently, the pirate found the restriction on stealing a bit too inconvenient.)
Examples of sanctimonious in a Sentence
Armond White, National Review, 27 Mar. 2024
But after a whiny Netflix documentary, a whiny biography (‘Spare’ — even the title is a pouty gripe) and an inert podcast, the Harry and Meghan brand swelled into a sanctimonious bubble just begging to be popped — and ‘South Park’ was the pin.
—Martha Ross, The Mercury News, 8 Jan. 2024
See all Example Sentences for sanctimonious 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sanctimonious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
1603, in the meaning defined at sense 1
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Cite this Entry
“Sanctimonious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sanctimonious. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
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sanctimonious
adjective
More from Merriam-Webster on sanctimonious
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