Puritan

American  

[pyoor-i-tn] / ˈpyʊər ɪ tn /

noun

1. a member of a group of Protestants that arose in the 16th century within the Church of England, demanding the simplification of doctrine and worship, and greater strictness in religious discipline: during part of the 17th century the Puritans became a powerful political party.

2. (lowercase) a person who is strict in moral or religious matters, often excessively so.

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adjective

1. of or relating to the Puritans.

2. (lowercase) of, relating to, or characteristic of a moral puritan; puritanical.

Puritan ¹ British  

/ ˈpjʊərɪtən /

noun

1. any of the more extreme English Protestants, most of whom were Calvinists, who wished to purify the Church of England of most of its ceremony and other aspects that they deemed to be Catholic

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adjective

1. of, characteristic of, or relating to the Puritans

puritan ² British  

/ ˈpjʊərɪtən /

noun

1. a person who adheres to strict moral or religious principles, esp one opposed to luxury and sensual enjoyment

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adjective

1. characteristic of a puritan

Other Word Forms

• Puritanism noun
• anti-Puritan noun
• antipuritan noun
• pro-Puritan noun
• propuritan noun
• puritanism noun
• puritanlike adjective
• puritanly adverb
• unpuritan adjective

Etymology

Origin of Puritan

1540–50; < Late Latin pūrit ( ās ) purity + -an

Explanation

If your brother calls you a puritan, then he’s saying you’re very moral — possibly too moral. He’s implying that you’re intolerant and look down on others who don’t have your standards. The Puritans were a group of English Protestants that formed in the 16th century to bring about religious reform. The Puritans wanted to “purify” the church by following intensely strict religious principles, which earned them the name Puritan. Puritan can still refer to the religious group — in that case it’ll have a capital “P” — but nowadays you’re more likely to hear it used to describe someone who follows a strict moral code and shuns almost all pleasures.

Example Sentences

Born in Dublin in 1623, Downing spent his childhood in London before emigrating to New England with his family as part of the Puritan migration.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 11, 2026

And two Americans: Kenyon, a wry, observant, skeptical humanist sculptor, perhaps a stand-in for Hawthorne himself; and Hilda, a New England Puritan painter—self-possessed, pious, unswervingly loyal, pure as a flight of doves.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026

“For nearly 250 years, Mary has played a distinct role in our great American story,” Trump declared, offering a brief Catholic history of the United States that would’ve made this country’s Puritan forefathers retch.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 11, 2025

It was branded as heretical by Puritan authorities.

From Slate • Aug. 21, 2025

American independence became his ministerial calling, a mission he pursued with all the compressed energy of a latter-day Puritan pastor whose congregation was the American people.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis