Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having or exhibiting religious reverence; earnestly compliant in the observance of religion; devout. See Synonyms at religious.
- adj. Marked by conspicuous devoutness: a pious and holy observation.
- adj. Marked by false devoutness; solemnly hypocritical: a pious fraud.
- adj. Devotional: pious readings.
- adj. Professing or exhibiting a strict, traditional sense of virtue and morality; high-minded.
- adj. Commendable; worthy: a pious effort.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having or exhibiting due respect and affection for parents or others to whom respect and affection are due; also, pertaining to or consisting in the duties of respect and affection toward parents or others.
- Having faith in and reverence for the Supreme Being; actuated by faith in and reverence for God; godly; devout: said of persons.
- Dictated by reverence for God; proceeding from piety: said of things: as, pious awe; pious services; pious sorrow.
- Practised under the pretense of religion or for a good end: as, pious frauds.
- Religious, holy, righteous, saintly. See religion.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of or pertaining to piety, exhibiting piety, devout, godfearing.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of or pertaining to piety; exhibiting piety; reverential; dutiful; religious; devout; godly.
- adj. Practiced under the pretext of religion; prompted by mistaken piety
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having or showing or expressing reverence for a deity
Etymologies
- From Latin pīus ("pious, dutiful, blessed, kind, devout"), from Proto-Indo-European *pey- (“to adore”). Cognate with Old English fǣle ("faithful, trusty, good; dear, beloved"). More at feal. (Wiktionary)
- From Latin pius, dutiful. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The word pious fits because Republicans really do worship the top 1 percent and the Wall Street tycoons like Romney who manipulate money but don't actually build anything or create net new jobs.”
The Huffington Post: Mike Lux: So Much for a Quiet Monday Afternoon
“Secondly, it is a good example of what I call the pious palimpsest.”
“If you type in the word 'pious' in Google it now comes up 'pious baloney.”
“-- At last, my mother could no longer bear to see me perplex and vex myself in my fruitless search for the letter, and confessed that while we were talking the preceding day, finding that no arguments or persuasions of hers had had any effect, she had determined on what she called a pious fraud: so, while”
“Martita kneeled on the front row with her hands pressed together in pious prayer-like fashion.”
“He has long abandoned the belief that one must speak in pious platitudes about doing what the framers intended, or not legislating from the bench.”
“It reached the ears of a certain pious man that there abode in such a town a blacksmith, who could put his hand into the fire and pull out the iron red-hot, without the flames doing him aught of hurt. 482”
“In the colony Derré de Gand was known as a pious and charitable man who “sought God in the spirit of truth.””
“He believed in a totalitarian, authoritarian system that rejected universal law, absolute rulers who lied and deceived a foolish mass and use religion, that he called a pious fraud, and politcs that disseminate myths that keep the general population in clueless ignorance.”
“A notion is going abroad that the colleges must be dedicated especially to certain pious creeds, to certain economic beliefs; that the colleges must always speak in a hushed tone for fear the working class should hear them.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pious’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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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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Public List: Two by Fives
This is an experiment in public lists--something I've been thinking about for some time. The goal is to create a collection of short, powerful, evocative words.
This is an open list. A...icy, howl, hymn, thorn, fire, vile, mist, blunt, scum, dark, shot, gleam and 221 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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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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INTERP - speeches can be...
adequate, adroit, blunt, blurred, committed, divisive, exacerbating, fitting, hollow, lengthy, murky, pronounced and 123 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 567 more...
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Wuthering Heights
Obscure classic English words in Wuthering Heights you barely understand till you check the dictionary out.
conjecture, tenant, sinewy, peevish, pious, advent, tumult, parlour, villanous, stalwart, soliloquise, gaiters and 6 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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personality traits
Ways you can behave, think, or feel.
capricious, whimsical, pragmatic, quixotic, petulant, precocious, gregarious, meticulous, spartan, stoic, pious, stalwart
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Hit Parade GRE
Princeton Review words
abscond, aberrant, alacrity, anomaly, approbation, arduous, assuage, audacious, austere, axiomatic, canonical, capricious and 287 more...
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alopecia
i suppose, all of the words & phrases yoni wolf uses in alopecia, that i love.
ladies man, landmine, cavalier, consumer grade video, single's bingo, all-time gringo, calculated birth, manila envelope, mortaring, houdini, punchline, circus mirrors and 160 more...
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Angels and Demons Word list
behemoth, disquietude, exalted, heretical, schlock, delirium, precipice, infallible, fathom, fervent, cavern, ardent and 35 more...
Tweets
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