Tartuffe

[tahr-toof, -toof, tar-tyf]

noun

plural

Tartuffes 

1. (italics),  a comedy (1664–69) by Molière.

2. (often lowercase),  Also Tartufe a hypocritical pretender to piety.

Tartuffe

/ tɑːˈtʊf, -ˈtuːf /

noun

1. a person who hypocritically pretends to be deeply pious

Other Word Forms

• Tartuffian adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Tartuffe¹

from the character in the Molière's comedy Tartuffe (1664)

Example Sentences

Moliere’s “Tartuffe” concerns the fallout in a family after an aging patriarch falls under the spell of a religious con artist.

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Trump’s pious façade is not unlike that of Molière’s character Tartuffe in his 1664 play, whose subtitle is "The Imposter."

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He also had a leading rolein a Broadway production of Molière’s “Tartuffe.”

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On the main stage of the Comédie-Française in Paris, where the production will transfer in the fall, the company could simply repurpose the very similar set of Ivo van Hove’s 2022 “Tartuffe.”

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But a current production of “Tartuffe,” presented by the theater company Molière in the Park, drawing from the playwright’s original version, takes a different approach.

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Related Words

• deceiver 
• hypocrite 
• pretender