impiety

American  

[im-pahy-i-tee] / ɪmˈpaɪ ɪ ti /

noun

PLURAL

impieties

1. lack of piety; lack of reverence for God or sacred things; irreverence.

2. lack of dutifulness or respect.

3. an impious act, practice, etc.

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impiety British  

/ ɪmˈpaɪɪtɪ /

noun

1. lack of reverence or proper respect for a god

2. any lack of proper respect

3. an impious act

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Etymology

Origin of impiety

1300–50; Middle English impietie < Latin impietās, equivalent to impi ( us ) impious + -etās, variant, after vowels, of -itās -ity

Example Sentences

“All your religious parade and solemnity are ... mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety and hypocrisy.”

From Washington Post

He was found guilty of corruption of the youth in Athens and impiety, namely “failing to acknowledge the gods that the city acknowledges” and “introducing new deities.”

From Washington Post

“Our impiety hath provoked this war upon us,” King wrote.

From Washington Post

Officially sanctioned Saudi clerics excoriated Hezbollah, while opponents of Saudi Arabia’s rulers “seized upon the war to highlight the caution, immobility, impiety and – some cases, illegitimacy – of the Saudi regime,” as a later study concluded.

From The Guardian

In 399BC, Socrates drank hemlock to fulfil the orders of the Athenian law court, which had sentenced him to death for impiety and corrupting the young.

From The Guardian