sanctimonious
Americanadjective
-
making a hypocritical show of religious devotion, piety, righteousness, etc..
They resented his sanctimonious comments on immorality in America.
-
Obsolete. holy; sacred.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of sanctimonious
First recorded in 1595–1605; sanctimony + -ous
Explanation
The sanctimonious person sounds like a hypocrite when he preaches to a friend about the evils of drugs, while he drinks one beer after another. Sanctimonious is a twist on the words sanctity and sacred, which mean holy or religious. A sanctimonious person might think he's holy, but their attitude comes across more like "holier-than-thou." Though sanctimonious people might try to act like saints, their actions are far from pure or holy, which just makes them sound like hypocrites.
Vocabulary lists containing sanctimonious
"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)
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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.
He’s quick with ripostes, righteous in off-the-cuff remarks and has a do-gooder aura that never comes off as sanctimonious.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 23, 2026
Dahlia Lithwick: In your article, you draw out the fact that lawyers are extremely uneasy about invoking the language of morality, because morality is either too malleable or just sanctimonious and annoying.
From Slate • Feb. 3, 2026
But Lucy Theo, a psychotherapist, counsellor and mother is urging parents to resist the "sanctimonious" idea that screens are inherently harmful.
From BBC • Dec. 25, 2025
And their sanctimonious approach to history becomes very tiresome very quickly.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 13, 2025
Let every last one of them glean themselves, and we can be done with their self-loathing, sanctimonious ways.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
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.
