moralistic
Americanadjective
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explaining or interpreting something in terms of right and wrong, especially in a self-righteous or tiresome way.
They reject both the moralistic view of addiction as willful evil and the medical model of addiction as a disease.
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emphasizing morality, especially unduly; moralizing.
She frowns on moralistic preaching that focuses on ethical duty divorced from the gospel of grace and gratitude.
-
concerned with regulating the morals of others, as by imposing censorship or other restrictions.
By trying to protect people from their own mistakes, moralistic laws prevent them from learning responsibility.
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relating to or being a philosopher or philosophy chiefly concerned with principles of morality.
During this period of antiquity, a number of moralistic philosophies emerged at the same time in different parts of the world.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of moralistic
First recorded in 1840–45; moralist ( def. ) + -ic ( def. )
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.
Biopics are “an exasperating genre,” Variety wrote, smushing some of “the planet’s most unorthodox personalities into a reductive, overly moralistic mold.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 30, 2025
And the language in the official recall petition strikes a moralistic tone.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2024
Meaning ostentatious or sumptuous still life, pronkstilleven art became all the rage in the Dutch Republic, both as a social documentation of wealth and a kind of moralistic satire.
From Salon ● Mar. 10, 2024
They have gone instead for chilly, moralistic and cautionary.
From New York Times ● Jan. 31, 2024
Jefferson’s Anglophobia was more virulent in part because it was more theoretical, a moral conclusion that followed naturally from the moralistic categories he carried around in his head.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
