Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Feigned piety or righteousness; hypocritical devoutness or high-mindedness.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Piety; devoutness; scrupulous austerity; sanctity.
- n. The external appearance of devoutness; labored show of goodness; affected or hypocritical devoutness.
Wiktionary
- n. A hypocritical form of excessive piety, considered to be an affectation merely for public show.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Holiness; devoutness; scrupulous austerity; sanctity; especially, outward or artificial saintliness; assumed or pretended holiness; hypocritical devoutness.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the quality of being hypocritically devout
Etymologies
- Obsolete French sanctimonie, from Latin sānctimōnia, sacredness, from sānctus, holy; see sanctify.
Examples
“But with any luck, it will be a eye-feast of hundreds of thousands of good-humored, well-behaved Americans, there to answer the cynicism of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally, at which the notion that the election of a black president somehow sullied the nation's dignity was dressed in sanctimony and a display of patriotism so bombastic that it was almost camp.”
“Question: Is there any chance — any chance — the Times would not release the tape and publish front-page story after story about the gory details, with the usual accompanying chorus of sanctimony from the oped commentariat?”
“Smug sanctimony is an interesting disease as those infected usually believe they speak for everyone else and are objective observers.”
“The poll does ask some loaded questions, but I believe an alarming level of sanctimony is implicit in those answers (Is the US more divided by class than Europe, I think not … are our racial tensions more acute, not even close).”
“Both the book itself and its reception (as recorded on Amazon. com) expose the sort of pleasure it promotes: that of solidarity in sanctimony.”
“Behind the sanctimony is a cliché: McDonald's medicine.”
“I don't know whether the abuse or the sanctimony are the most annoying.”
“Instead of following this path, Obama has "rebuked his fellow liberals for their 'sanctimony'" and called Republicans "hostage takers.”
The Huffington Post: Danny Groner: What Can Obama Learn From Bill Clinton?
“Moral absolutism carries within it powerful temptations such as sanctimony and grievance.”
“I see your default setting is still stuck on "sanctimony".”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sanctimony’.
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Words that shouldn't be used on a first date.
probation, trekkie, wart, unemployed, fetish, suspended driver'..., felon, aerophagia, undies, debt collector, girlfriend, boyfriend and 261 more...
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Mony Mony
Here she comes now sayin' Mony Mony...
alimony, parsimony, antimony, acrimony, ceremony, harmony, hegemony, lemony, matrimony, sanctimony, simony, testimony and 3 more...
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Nouny
calumny, parsimony, gluttony, alimony, sanctimony, harmony, miscegeny, telephony, colony, antimony, larceny, mahogany and 26 more...
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