ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Self-righteous

Definition, Meaning & Examples

Part of speech adjective

Quick meaning: Self-righteous is an adjective meaning Piously self-assured and smugly moralistic.

Meaning

Piously self-assured and smugly moralistic.

More Meanings

  1. Patronizingly moralizing and rebuking.

Example Sentences

Near-synonyms: smug, complacent; sanctimonious
“God's blood, Thomas, self-righteous prickery is not the preserve of the English!”
And is it not possible, Mr. Hier, that people are reacting (in a contemptible way, certainly) against your self-righteous bawling?

Synonyms for self-righteous

Depending on context, synonyms include holier-than-thou, smug, complacent, sanctimonious, pious, pharisaical.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include sanctimonious, holier-than-thou, pious, pietistic, pharisaical, pharisaic.

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Sources & Attribution

FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.