Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, supported by, or located in a parish.
  • adjective Of or relating to parochial schools.
  • adjective Narrowly restricted in scope or outlook; provincial.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to a parish: as, a parochial custom.
  • Local; provincial; narrow.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to a parish; restricted to a parish.
  • adjective Limited; narrow; having or characterized by narrow interests centered on oneself or one's local community; narrow-minded; provincial.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Pertaining to a parish.
  • adjective Characterized by an unsophisticated focus on local concerns to the exclusion of wider contexts; elementary in scope or outlook.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective narrowly restricted in outlook or scope
  • adjective relating to or supported by or located in a parish

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin parochiālis, from parochia, diocese; see parish.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman parochial and its source Late Latin parochialis, an alteration of paroecialis ("of a church province"), from paroecia, from Hellenistic Greek παροικία (paroikia, "stay in a foreign land") , later “community, diocese”, from Ancient Greek πάροικος (paroikos, "neighbouring, neighbour"), from παρα- (para-) + οἶκος (oikos, "house").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Patriotic

    September 20, 2010

  • Father Ted used this word when he was giving a policeman his address after looking at a couple in the process of making love.

    June 10, 2012

  • mnemonics view from a parrots eye that is parochial

    August 7, 2012

  • parochial means you think your ways and where you're from is better than anywhere else...very close minded.

    July 24, 2015

  • narrowly restricted in scope or outlook

    Jasmine was sad to admit it, but her fledgling relationship with Jacob did not work out because his culinary tastes were simply too parochial; "After all," she quipped on her blog, "he considered Chef Boyardee ethnic food."

    October 11, 2016