Pharisaic
Americanadjective
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of or relating to the Pharisees.
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(lowercase) practicing or advocating strict observance of external forms and ceremonies of religion or conduct without regard to the spirit; self-righteous; hypocritical.
adjective
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Judaism of, relating to, or characteristic of the Pharisees or Pharisaism
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(often not capital) righteously hypocritical
Other Word Forms
- Pharisaicaless noun
- Pharisaically adverb
- Pharisaicalness noun
Etymology
Origin of Pharisaic
1610–20; < Late Latin Pharisaicus < Greek Pharisaikós. See Pharisee, -ic
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.
It goes to show that the tension between wanting to adhere to the intention of the season without being Pharisaic in this endeavor isn't a new feeling for the devout — nor is the desire to find a spiritual loophole one that will likely be lost on future generations of Catholics.
From Salon
It goes to show that the tension between wanting to adhere to the intention of the season without being Pharisaic in this endeavor isn't a new feeling for the devout — nor is the desire to find a spiritual loophole one that will likely be lost on future generations of Catholics.
From Salon
The action results in a remarkably minimalist chase scene, done with a light touch to mask its gravity, which unites Vincent’s quest for his identity with a revolt against the Pharisaic norms of modern life as well as with echoes of the French Resistance.
From The New Yorker
When the sect of Judaism that emphasized the Temple—broadly, the Sadducees—was essentially wiped out by the Romans shortly after the time of Jesus, the Pharisaic leaders, in the form of the sages of the Talmud, were given a mostly free hand to reshape Judaism in their own image.
From Slate
According to them, over multiple generations they simply stopped being Jewish: With the notion of Jewish identity now tied directly to literacy by the surviving Pharisaic rabbis of the Talmud, raising one's children as Jews required a substantial investment in Jewish education.
From Slate
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.
