piety

American  

[pahy-i-tee] / ˈpaɪ ɪ ti /

noun

• pieties
  plural

1. 

   reverence for God or devout fulfillment of religious obligations.

   a prayer full of piety.

   Synonyms:

   awe, veneration, respect

2. the quality or state of being pious.

   saintly piety.

   Synonyms:

   holiness, sanctity, devoutness, devotion, godliness

3. dutiful respect or regard for parents, homeland, etc..

   filial piety.

4. a pious act, remark, belief, or the like.

   the pieties and sacrifices of an austere life.

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piety British  

/ ˈpaɪɪtɪ /

noun

1. dutiful devotion to God and observance of religious principles

2. the quality or characteristic of being pious

3. a pious action, saying, etc

4. rare devotion and obedience to parents or superiors

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• superpiety
  noun
• unpiety
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pieties
  plural

Etymology

Origin of piety

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English piete, from Middle French, from Latin pietās, equivalent to pi(us) + -etās, variant (after i ) of -itās; see pious, -ity

Explanation

Piety is devotion to God or to religious practices. Nuns who pray all day long are famous for their piety. If you have filial piety it means you're devoted to your parents. Piety is sometimes used in a disapproving way to mean that the person is only pretending to be devoted or good. It was borrowed from the French word pieté, meaning "piety or pity," ultimately from the Latin pius, "devoted, kind." This Latin adjective is also the source of our English adjective pious.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

piety pieties

So much so that some state media have tried to steer the discussion online towards traditionals concepts of filial piety, urging young people to be more understanding of their parents.

From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026

The author rescues her from near-historical oblivion, portraying a woman of intense piety, “even more devout than her mother-in-law.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026

You’ve seen a couple hundred of them by the time you hit second or third grade, so you become familiar with the muted ethereal glow, the heavenly gaze and the look of piety.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2026

Iskander’s David is a young man whose youthful piety and heroism make him a sympathetic figure, notwithstanding the bag of cold cuts.

From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2026

I’d prefer less false piety and a considerably higher economic value placed on human lives.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos

Through an artistic probing of form, perhaps reflective of his ancestors’ Talmudic dialectic, he questioned traditional pieties and challenged an existing order.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 12, 2026

Much of the public wanted a different take on war - and one that challenged solemn pieties at the heart of Official Remembrance.

From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2025

There’s not much inner life to unearth in a protagonist whose weather-vane identity is cobbled together from magazines, retail catalogs, newspaper op-eds, religious sermons and corporate pieties.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2023

Bakewell describes how he “trashes all the humanistic pieties on the subject of reading,” defending, for example, the right to unapologetically toss a dull book aside.

From New York Times ● Apr. 2, 2023

She had little patience for Ginikas friends, most of whom were like that, their righteousness made her feel both irritated and lacking, but she was prepared to forgive Blaine's pieties.

From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Related Words

• fervor
• loyalty
• religiosity
• reverence
• zeal