sanctimonious

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˌsæŋktəˈmoʊniəs/ UK /ˌsæŋktɪˈməʊniəs/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
making a hypocritical show of moral or religious superiority

His sanctimonious lecturing on thrift rang hollow given his own debts.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · making a hypocritical show... self-righteouspious hypocriticalpreachyholier-than-thouunctuous smug

Opposites

humble sincere modest

Word family

Derived forms sanctimoniouslysanctimoniousness

Related forms sanctimony sanctity sanctify saint

Simplified etymology

Sanctimonious appeared in the early 17th century and is based on Latin sanctus “holy.” It originally meant “holy in character.”

Etymology

From Latin sanctimonia ('sacredness, holiness'), from sanctus ('holy') + -monia (abstract suffix); the pejorative sense of feigned piety developed in English by the 17th century.

sanctimonia Latin sanctus Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# sanctimonious

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ˌsæŋktəˈmoʊniəs/
**IPA (UK):** /ˌsæŋktɪˈməʊniəs/

## Meanings
1. making a hypocritical show of moral or religious superiority

## Examples
- His sanctimonious lecturing on thrift rang hollow given his own debts.

## Synonyms
- self-righteous
- pious
- hypocritical
- preachy
- holier-than-thou
- unctuous
- smug

## Antonyms
- humble
- sincere
- modest

## Derived Forms
- sanctimoniously
- sanctimoniousness

## Related Forms
- sanctimony
- sanctity
- sanctify
- saint

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: sanctimonia
- Root: sanctus

## Etymology
From Latin sanctimonia ('sacredness, holiness'), from sanctus ('holy') + -monia (abstract suffix); the pejorative sense of feigned piety developed in English by the 17th century.

## AI Etymology
Sanctimonious comes from Latin sanctimonia ('sacredness, holiness'), from sanctus ('holy') + -monia (abstract suffix); the pejorative sense of feigned piety developed in English by the 17th century. The historical chain includes Latin sanctimonia and Latin sanctus. Older glosses in the chain include "sacredness, holiness" and "holy", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, sanctimonious is best read as compound, suffixal formation, and borrowing, yielding an English adjective shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as an adjective, with the sense "making a hypocritical show of moral or religious superiority". English derivatives include sanctimoniously and sanctimoniousness; related forms include sanctimony, sanctity, sanctify, and saint. The result is an English adjective whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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