Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The state or quality of being pious, especially:
- n. Religious devotion and reverence to God.
- n. Devotion and reverence to parents and family: filial piety.
- n. A devout act, thought, or statement.
- n. A position held conventionally or hypocritically.
- n. A statement of such a position: "the liberated pieties of people who believe that social attitudes have kept pace with women's aspirations” ( Erica Abeel).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The character of being pious or having filial affection; natural or filial affection; dutiful conduct or behavior toward one's parents, relatives, country, or benefactors.
- n. Faith in and reverence for the Supreme Being; filial obedience inspired by these sentiments; godliness.
- n. Synonyms Devotion, Sanctity, etc. See religion.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable reverence and devotion to God
- n. uncountable similar reverence to one's parents and family
- n. countable a devout act or thought
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Veneration or reverence of the Supreme Being, and love of his character; loving obedience to the will of God, and earnest devotion to his service.
- n. Duty; dutifulness; filial reverence and devotion; affectionate reverence and service shown toward parents, relatives, benefactors, country, etc.
WordNet 3.0
- n. righteousness by virtue of being pious
Etymologies
- Middle English piete, mercy, pity, from Old French, from Latin pietās, dutiful conduct, from pius, dutiful. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Consequently the term piety extends also to the divine worship.”
“Reply Obj. 3: The relations of a man with his kindred and fellow-citizens are more referable to the principles of his being than other relations: wherefore the term piety is more applicable to them.”
“The question of what piety means or what the term piety refers to still needs to be answered, by finding the suitable reason.”
“Helen looked on Miriam as a pretty ornament or toy, and Miriam gazed dubiously at what she called the piety of the other.”
“France as well as Denmark, Carlyle and his school made some effort to justify their Germanism, by pitting what they called the piety and simplicity of Germany against what they called the cynicism and ribaldry of France.”
“She can't keep her attention fixed on anything, not even on her prayers, and what she calls piety I should call idleness.”
“And God, who understands us well, has appointed them to keep us in a perpetual frame of love; for so ready is our bad nature to kindle with our good, and burn with it, that what we call our piety, is, otherwise, in constant danger of degenerating into a fiery, censorious, unmerciful and intolerant spirit.”
“The ardent longing for some being above us, on whom we can lean when our own powers fail, -- the wonderful instinct which desires a faithful friend to whom we can tell every joy and sorrow without fear of disclosure, the thankfulness with which we behold this beautiful world and all the rich blessings we have received -- these are the feelings which we call piety -- devotion.”
“As "piety" is in relation to God, "gravity" is propriety of behavior among men.”
“Dei x), "the term piety is often used in connection with works of mercy, in the language of the common people; the reason for which I consider to be the fact that”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘piety’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Artistic words
Good for poetry, or just artistic on their own.
fluxus, gallant, kinetic, lurk, disengage, mist, agleam, voyeur, devoid, crimson, ebony, azure and 94 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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2nd part
prelude, ample, escalate, prototype, accession, acquisition, archives, zealot, indict, verdict, intimidating, timid and 454 more...
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RELI - virtues of the true Christian
The fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit
generosity, modesty, chastity, healing, prophecy, tongues, wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, godliness and 7 more...
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Morte d'Arthur.04
grim, hermitage, serge, piety, requiem, fitful, usurper, induced, desolation, enmity, adder, fickle and 3 more...
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P
letters starting with p
predicament, presumptuous, predilection, plausible, preeminent, plaintive, paragon, partisan, pathological, paucity, pedantic, penchant and 28 more...
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GRE Readings
sophistry, religious, venture, touching, slander, rotunda, singular, spurious, rhetoric, virtue, temper, tardy and 133 more...
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The Golden Rule
TABLE OF PROPOSED RULES TO LIVE BY
The Golden Rule Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
The Silver Rule Do not do unto others what you would not have them do un...ethics, reciprocity, silver rule, karma, tit for tat, newton's third law, virtue, temperance, fortitude, prudence, justice, humanity and 44 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1907 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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fifi
verbs Adj Adv noun
indulge, convene, solve, dissolve, prospect, prospective, allege, resolve, accountable, administration, amid, agenda and 407 more...
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Words from "Pearls Before Breakfast"
nondescript, shrewd, seed money, bureaucrat, indeterminate, fungible, cupidity, banal, grandeur, utilitarian, buffer, ecstatic and 123 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
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Favorites
machiavellian, mercurial, deus ex machina, synecdoche, litotes, phallic, freudian, metonymy, chrestomathy, falsifiable, gestalt, truthiness and 211 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for piety.
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