Definition of Sanctimonious

sanctimonious (adjective) - possessing sanctimony; holy; sacred; saintly

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How can sanctimonious be used in a sentence?

  1. Then you must not know what "sanctimonious" means.

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  2. I think "sanctimonious" is what you're looking for.

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  3. One person's "sanctimonious" is another person's desperation.

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  4. You refer to the sanctimonious speech by Obama in Cairo two years ago.

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  5. At least we were spared this kind of sanctimonious healthist garbage then.

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  6. Mr Bercow was once dubbed a "sanctimonious dwarf" by Simon Burns, the health minister.

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  7. This kind of sanctimonious, judgmental, Dr Laura-esque comment really rubs me the wrong way.

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  8. I see someone is calling RichM "sanctimonious" and referring to his "sanctimonious platitudes."

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  9. Liberal opponents are "sanctimonious," preferring their own purity to the interests of the poor.

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  10. Some of my colleagues claim to have detected the word "sanctimonious" in there somewhere as well.

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  11. He dismissed his Democratic critics as "sanctimonious" and obsessed with staking out a "purist position."

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  12. But there was manifest in the record a kind of sanctimonious triumph in the extinction of all the great man's insight and wisdom.

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  13. Mr. Reid called that "sanctimonious" and added: "Where were their concerns about Christmas as we had filibuster after filibuster?"

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  14. I realize that this kind of sanctimonious callousness is something that thrives in the anonymity of the internet, but it made me so sad.

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  15. I formally apologize to Zou, you, and the other guy I called "sanctimonious". (no guarantees if Zou gets up on his high horse again though)

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  16. While we realize that is an untruthful assertion, truth has not been a guiding tool for you in the past, so no need to be sanctimonious now.

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  17. The President's "sanctimonious" admonition of Democrats who had expected more, should have been directed at the obstruction of the Republicans.

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  18. On the other hand, maybe seeing that sanctimonious bumper sticker is a good thing - Like a free warning to avoid the man or woman behind the wheel.

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  19. Mr. Obama ' s Tuesday press conference, in which he compared Republicans to " hostage-takers " and accused liberal Democrats of being " sanctimonious, " offended everyone.

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  20. (If you're among the minority who supports it, you may have found this a noble gesture; if you're among the other three quarters, "sanctimonious" is probably closer to the mark.)

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  21. Because while they're up so high on their sanctimonious horse right now, Republicans were singing a quite different tune when they had a majority (but not a 60-vote supermajority).

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  22. This is a caution against the "sanctimonious" attitude and pose assumed by certain "good" people of the churches, who would make a display of their adherence to and observance of forms.

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  23. In this kind of sanctimonious state, the withdrawal increased, but the gradual encroachment of psychic numbness was not clearly perceived by me, and therefore there was no effort to control it.

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  24. Moreover, while the GOP wags a sanctimonious finger at Americans and Democrats about the need for fiscal restraint at home, they burn through billions of dollars on an imperial foreign policy abroad.

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  25. OSLO -- Too often in recent times Norway has embarrassed itself as a sanctimonious dispenser of devalued Nobel Peace Prizes, having more to do lately with Norway's left-leaning politics than with peace.

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  26. The writers, and even the group of players, who looked the other way for years but now want to lash out at guys like ARod are the same kind of sanctimonious scum as the guys in management who did the same.

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  27. This slight moderation in tone has been noticeable ever since Obama blasted Democrats he called "sanctimonious" for decrying the deals he's struck with Republicans on such issues as tax cuts and health care.

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  28. Here and there was a thrush, feeding on the ground; or an oven-bird might be seen picking his devious way through the underwoods, in paths of his own, and with a gait of studied and "sanctimonious" originality.

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  29. He described liberal opponents of such deals as "sanctimonious" and purists, while likening the Republicans with whom he made the deal to "hostage takers" for holding out to extend tax cuts for the wealthy along with the middle class.

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  30. Such criticism, though a bit sanctimonious, is reasonably well grounded: in the years since an ailing Yeltsin appointed him Russia's president, on December 31, 1999, Putin has in numerous ways tried to reassert Kremlin control over the country.

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  31. So what you are saying is that folks should not be able to agree to disagree, they need to pulverize and pummel their fellow Democrats who have an opposing opinion, yet Obama, accordingly to you, is 'sanctimonious' for chastising his fellow Dems?

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  32. Faced with increasing criticism from liberals over his decision to compromise with Republicans on a two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts, Obama openly chastised the party's base -- warning them of being "sanctimonious" and reminding them that "this country was founded on compromise".

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  33. Before his marriage, Mr. Weld lodged, on principle, in a colored family in New York, even submitting to the inconvenience of having no heat in his room in winter, and bearing with singular charity and patience what Sarah calls the sanctimonious pride and Pharisaical aristocracy of his hosts.

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  34. Lenz case so "sanctimonious" -- and dishonest -- as to suggest that he has never read the YouTube Terms of Service or discerned why a lawyer should not shriek that corporations "flout" their legal obligations by hiring third-parties who specialize in executing those legal obligations (p. 169-170).

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  35. The low point of self defeating activism came at a Radio City Music Hall fundraiser at which Chevy Chase said the president had the intellect of an "egg timer" John Mellencamp called Bush a "cheap thug" and Meryl Streep, in a performance that brings new meaning to the word sanctimonious, belittled the president's faith.

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  36. If anybody in power happened to read this, I'd probably be dismissed as another member of the "sanctimonious" and "purist" left -- even though I'm more moderate on the bonus issue that three-quarters of all Republicans -- and even though a smarter and fairer approach would be the most practical course of action our leaders could take.

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  37. Occasionally, for my benefit, she would recall the sanctimonious preachers who would dismiss three-quarters of the world's people as ignorant heathens doomed to spend the afterlife in eternal damnation-and who in the same breath would insist that the earth and the heavens had been created in seven days, all geologic and astrophysical evidence to the contrary.

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  38. Occasionally, for my benefit, she would recall the sanctimonious preachers who would dismiss three-quarters of the world's people as ignorant heathens doomed to spend the afterlife in eternal damnation -- and who in the same breath would insist that the earth and the heavens had been created in seven days, all geologic and astrophysical evidence to the contrary.

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  39. The happy coincidence was that I had just seen the movie "Inherit the Wind," on TV, and I recalled the scene in which the sanctimonious William Jennings Bryan (Fredric March) declares on the witness stand to the avuncular but sly Clarence Darrow (Spencer Tracy) that Darwin's calculations were wrong and that, according to Bishop Ussher, the earth had been created on October 23rd, 4004, at precisely nine o'clock in the morning.

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Tips for Using sanctimonious in a Sentence

You may have an easier time writing sentences with sanctimonious if you know what words are likely to come before or after it, or simply what words are often found in the same sentence.

Frequent Predecessors

Words that often come before sanctimonious in sentences. For example: "the sanctimonious" or "a sanctimonious"

  • the
  • a
  • and
  • of
  • with
  • his
  • that
  • their
  • this
  • as

Frequent Successors

Words that often come after sanctimonious in sentences. For example: "sanctimonious and" or "sanctimonious ."

  • and
  • .
  • about
  • reverence
  • air
  • old
  • hypocrisy
  • tone
  • in
  • hypocrite

Associated Words

Words that aren't necessarily predecessors or successors, but are often found in the same sentence.

  • fraud
  • attitude
  • executive
  • too
  • man
  • little
  • love

Alternate Definitions

  • sanctimonious (adjective) - making a show of sanctity; affecting saintliness; hypocritically devout or pious
A sentence using sanctimonious