censorious
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- anticensorious adjective
- anticensoriously adverb
- anticensoriousness noun
- censoriously adverb
- censoriousness noun
- noncensorious adjective
- noncensoriously adverb
- noncensoriousness noun
- overcensorious adjective
- overcensoriously adverb
- overcensoriousness noun
- uncensorious adjective
- uncensoriously adverb
- uncensoriousness noun
Etymology
Origin of censorious
1530–40; < Latin cēnsōrius of a censor, hence, austere, moral; censor, -tory 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But the censorious effect is the same, even if deployed covertly.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 4, 2026
Perhaps to the dismay of the censorious, it is also instructional.
From Los Angeles Times • May 13, 2025
He distorted emails and other exchanges to make them look coercive when they were nothing of the sort, cherry-picking and rearranging quotations to put them in a censorious light.
From Slate • Mar. 18, 2024
"We cannot stress enough how these censorious efforts will not end with book bans," the open letter states.
From Salon • Sep. 21, 2023
The Verdun section of Montreal was in no sense a dressy neighborhood, and I was convinced that every passer-by was giving me a second, basically censorious look.
From "Nine Stories" by J. D. Salinger
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
