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pharisaical. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Etymology
From Late Latin Pharisaicus + -al.
Pronunciation
Adjective
pharisaical (comparative more pharisaical, superlative most pharisaical)
- Of or pertaining to the Pharisees.
- (chiefly Christianity) Emphasizing the observance of ritual or practice over the meaning; self-righteous, hypocritical.
1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter XVIII, in Duty and Inclination: , volume III, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, page 235:Perhaps no man in the world had less than Douglas the pharisaical precision of Methodism; he was totally averse to their sudden and evanescent flights of enthusiasm, their frantic ravings of intemperate zeal in devotion, as if invoking a vindictive and implacable Deity; […]
2012, Piers Brendon, ‘Beginning the Dissent’, Literary Review, volume 401:Thus Aurobindo Ghose stated that the puritanical, pharisaical British conquered in the name of liberty and usurped under the cloak of altruism.
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