Pious
adjective
Really religious or spiritual, seriously obeying religious rules.
His pious attitude is reflected in his regular attendance at church.
Often appears as...
- pious devotee
- pious believer
adjective
Pretending to be very religious or moral to make people respect you, but not being sincere or honest.
He gave a pious speech, but he doesn't really care about the issue.
Often appears as...
- pious fraud
- pious pretense
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Really religious or spiritual, seriously obeying religious rules.
His pious attitude is reflected in his regular attendance at church.
Often appears as...
- pious devotee
- pious believer
adjective
Pretending to be very religious or moral to make people respect you, but not being sincere or honest.
He gave a pious speech, but he doesn't really care about the issue.
Often appears as...
- pious fraud
- pious pretense
Usage tips
Disapproving
Definition 1 of 2
Pro Tip 1/3Positive Connotation
When used sincerely, 'pious' has a positive tone, showing approval of someone's devoutness.
She is admired for her pious dedication to volunteering.
Pro Tip 2/3Genuine Spirituality
'Pious' often implies that someone's behavior genuinely reflects their deep religious or spiritual convictions.
His pious lifestyle was evident through his actions, not just words.
Pro Tip 3/3Ceremonious Respect
'Pious' captures an element of respectfulness, especially during religious ceremonies or practices.
She bowed her head in a pious gesture before entering the shrine.
Pro Tip 1/3Positive Connotation
When used sincerely, 'pious' has a positive tone, showing approval of someone's devoutness.
She is admired for her pious dedication to volunteering.
Pro Tip 2/3Genuine Spirituality
'Pious' often implies that someone's behavior genuinely reflects their deep religious or spiritual convictions.
His pious lifestyle was evident through his actions, not just words.
Pro Tip 3/3Ceremonious Respect
'Pious' captures an element of respectfulness, especially during religious ceremonies or practices.
She bowed her head in a pious gesture before entering the shrine.
Pro Tip 1/3Positive Connotation
When used sincerely, 'pious' has a positive tone, showing approval of someone's devoutness.
She is admired for her pious dedication to volunteering.
Pro Tip 2/3Genuine Spirituality
'Pious' often implies that someone's behavior genuinely reflects their deep religious or spiritual convictions.
His pious lifestyle was evident through his actions, not just words.
Pro Tip 3/3Ceremonious Respect
'Pious' captures an element of respectfulness, especially during religious ceremonies or practices.
She bowed her head in a pious gesture before entering the shrine.
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Video examples
Why should you read...
just as scheming as her unexpected guest– and rattles the reader’s presumptions about who has the upper hand. For O’Connor, no subject was off limits. Though she was a devout Catholic, she wasn’t afraid to explore the possibility of pious thought and unpious behavior co-existing in the same person.
Video examples
The way we think about...
The Puritans came here for religious reasons, or so they said, but they also came here because they wanted to make a lot of money. They were pious people, but they were also really aggressive capitalists, and they were accused of extreme forms of profit-making tendencies,
Video examples
The risky politics of...
While ordinary folks have grown more pious on a personal level -- I saw a lot more headscarves on a recent visit than I would have a decade ago -- the country's politics have moved in the opposite direction. Indonesia is now a pretty decent democracy.
Video examples
How to get empowered,...
Now, hang on. Do you folks want the future that's politically right or left? Do you want the pious society with strict moral rules, or do you an hedonistic free-for-all, more like Burning Man 24/7? Do you want beautiful beaches, forests and lakes,
Video examples
Why does the universe...
is very elegant. Don't believe him. It's a pious hope, I wish it were true, but I think the other day he admitted to me it's really an ugly universe. It's stupidly constructed, it's got way too many arbitrary coupling constants and mass ratios
Video examples
James Robertson: The...
deserters and the occasion when the sternly pious Stonewall Jackson became hopelessly intoxicated or highlights that's a highlight in it in and of itself being somebody quite familiar with the jungle one cannot look at human
Video examples
Mustafa Akyol: Faith...
where you have a dictatorship suppressing its own people, including the Islamic pious, and they're reacting in reactionary ways. There was one country, though, which was able to escape or stay away from that vicious cycle.
Video examples
The real meaning of soul...
as to insist that a life lost could be a soul found but what are we were to reclaim Seoul from the lost-and-found business if we were to free it of pious modifiers such as blessed and immortal because it
Video examples
Environment vs...
Greenpeace activists who are now interfering in how we run the country bottom of the radio pious Pio Stefan Ella was one of a new breed of settlers shaping the Amazon people that
Video examples
Lesley Hazleton: The...
that might make it easy to cry foul, to put down the whole story as a pious fable. Quite the contrary. In his own reported words, he was convinced at first
Video examples
Why should you read...
just as scheming as her unexpected guest– and rattles the reader’s presumptions about who has the upper hand. For O’Connor, no subject was off limits. Though she was a devout Catholic, she wasn’t afraid to explore the possibility of pious thought and unpious behavior co-existing in the same person.
Video examples
The way we think about...
The Puritans came here for religious reasons, or so they said, but they also came here because they wanted to make a lot of money. They were pious people, but they were also really aggressive capitalists, and they were accused of extreme forms of profit-making tendencies,
Video examples
The risky politics of...
While ordinary folks have grown more pious on a personal level -- I saw a lot more headscarves on a recent visit than I would have a decade ago -- the country's politics have moved in the opposite direction. Indonesia is now a pretty decent democracy.
Video examples
How to get empowered,...
Now, hang on. Do you folks want the future that's politically right or left? Do you want the pious society with strict moral rules, or do you an hedonistic free-for-all, more like Burning Man 24/7? Do you want beautiful beaches, forests and lakes,
Video examples
Why does the universe...
is very elegant. Don't believe him. It's a pious hope, I wish it were true, but I think the other day he admitted to me it's really an ugly universe. It's stupidly constructed, it's got way too many arbitrary coupling constants and mass ratios
Video examples
James Robertson: The...
deserters and the occasion when the sternly pious Stonewall Jackson became hopelessly intoxicated or highlights that's a highlight in it in and of itself being somebody quite familiar with the jungle one cannot look at human
Video examples
Mustafa Akyol: Faith...
where you have a dictatorship suppressing its own people, including the Islamic pious, and they're reacting in reactionary ways. There was one country, though, which was able to escape or stay away from that vicious cycle.
Video examples
The real meaning of soul...
as to insist that a life lost could be a soul found but what are we were to reclaim Seoul from the lost-and-found business if we were to free it of pious modifiers such as blessed and immortal because it
Video examples
Environment vs...
Greenpeace activists who are now interfering in how we run the country bottom of the radio pious Pio Stefan Ella was one of a new breed of settlers shaping the Amazon people that
Video examples
Lesley Hazleton: The...
that might make it easy to cry foul, to put down the whole story as a pious fable. Quite the contrary. In his own reported words, he was convinced at first
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Terry Eagleton
English Critic
The role of the intellectual, so it is said, is to speak truth to power. Noam Chomsky has dismissed this pious tag on two grounds. For one thing, power knows the truth already; it is just busy trying to conceal it. For another, it is not those in power who need the truth, but those they oppress.
Quote examples
Saint Teresa of Avila
Spanish Saint
O my God, what must a soul be like when it is in this state! It longs to be all one tongue with which to praise the Lord. It utters a thousand pious follies, in a continuous endeavor to please Him who thus possesses it.
Quote examples
Martin Chemnitz
German Theologian
I am calling attention just to the main points of these tremendously important matters, which can be understood better by pious meditation than explained by human language.
Quote examples
Debra Granik
American Director
In the U.K., working-class lives are depicted with the characters' humour, but in the U.S., people with difficulties are often depicted with pious or simply dreary lives.
Quote examples
Michel Faber
Dutch Writer
The privileged Victorians who did most to improve the lives of the poor were not ashamed of their pious intent: they were superiors seeking to help inferiors.
Quote examples
Henri Frederic Amiel
Swiss Philosopher
In every loving woman there is a priestess of the past - a pious guardian of some affection, of which the object has disappeared.
Quote examples
Vikrant Massey
Indian Actor
All my characters are quite relatable, as they are flawed, true, and honest. All of us are flawed; nobody is pure and pious.
Quote examples
C. S. Lewis
British Writer
The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.
Quote examples
Madhur Bhandarkar
Indian Director
My inherent belief is that motherhood is pious, and I am humbled by it.
Quote examples
Akhil Sharma
Indian Author
My parents are deeply pious Hindus.
Quote examples
Terry Eagleton
English Critic
The role of the intellectual, so it is said, is to speak truth to power. Noam Chomsky has dismissed this pious tag on two grounds. For one thing, power knows the truth already; it is just busy trying to conceal it. For another, it is not those in power who need the truth, but those they oppress.
Quote examples
Saint Teresa of Avila
Spanish Saint
O my God, what must a soul be like when it is in this state! It longs to be all one tongue with which to praise the Lord. It utters a thousand pious follies, in a continuous endeavor to please Him who thus possesses it.
Quote examples
Martin Chemnitz
German Theologian
I am calling attention just to the main points of these tremendously important matters, which can be understood better by pious meditation than explained by human language.
Quote examples
Debra Granik
American Director
In the U.K., working-class lives are depicted with the characters' humour, but in the U.S., people with difficulties are often depicted with pious or simply dreary lives.
Quote examples
Michel Faber
Dutch Writer
The privileged Victorians who did most to improve the lives of the poor were not ashamed of their pious intent: they were superiors seeking to help inferiors.
Quote examples
Henri Frederic Amiel
Swiss Philosopher
In every loving woman there is a priestess of the past - a pious guardian of some affection, of which the object has disappeared.
Quote examples
Vikrant Massey
Indian Actor
All my characters are quite relatable, as they are flawed, true, and honest. All of us are flawed; nobody is pure and pious.
Quote examples
C. S. Lewis
British Writer
The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.
Quote examples
Madhur Bhandarkar
Indian Director
My inherent belief is that motherhood is pious, and I am humbled by it.
Quote examples
Akhil Sharma
Indian Author
My parents are deeply pious Hindus.
Example 1 of 10
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