censorious

[sen-sawr-ee-uhs, -sohr-]

adjective

1. severely critical; faultfinding; carping.

censorious

/ sɛnˈsɔːrɪəs /

adjective

1. harshly critical; fault-finding

Other Word Forms

• censoriously adverb
• censoriousness noun
• anticensorious adjective
• anticensoriously adverb
• anticensoriousness noun
• noncensorious adjective
• noncensoriously adverb
• noncensoriousness noun
• overcensorious adjective
• overcensoriously adverb
• overcensoriousness noun
• uncensorious adjective
• uncensoriously adverb
• uncensoriousness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of censorious¹

1530–40; < Latin cēnsōrius of a censor, hence, austere, moral; censor, -tory ¹

Example Sentences

But the council’s censorious plans for the library made them “outraged, and this was enough,” said Carryl.

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Perhaps to the dismay of the censorious, it is also instructional.

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The West can be just as censorious as China, he said Tuesday.

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Beauchamp portrays this as a fight between Christian conservatives and "Barstool conservatives," who he describes as dude-bros less interested in Jesus and more in hating "what they see as censorious political correctness."

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"We cannot stress enough how these censorious efforts will not end with book bans," the open letter states.

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