Thesaurus.com
Dictionary.com
Definitions

puritanical

[pyoor-i-tan-i-kuhl] / ˌpjʊər ɪˈtæn ɪ kəl /


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.

See Examples For:

The setting is still a Swiss alpine hamlet, but the villagers are all members of some puritanical sect and its sleepwalking heroine, Amina, has longings that transcend its limits.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2025

The Jesus Army church recruited thousands of people to live in close-knit, puritanical communities in Northamptonshire, London and the Midlands.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2025

And two justices have already aligned themselves with a sweeping interpretation of its puritanical prohibitions.

From Slate ● Mar. 26, 2024

Missouri’s also a state whose highway billboard signs tell a much stranger story than the puritanical hubris of its legislators suggest.

From Salon ● Dec. 28, 2023

Other hobgoblins were the brainchildren of self-proclaimed experts who cooked up idiosyncratic theories of how language ought to behave, usually with a puritanical undercurrent in which people’s natural inclinations must be a form of dissoluteness.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker


Vocabulary lists containing puritanical

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 14,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training