How to Use sanctimonious in a Sentence

sanctimonious

adjective
Definition of sanctimoniousnext
Synonyms for sanctimoniousnext
  • But power can be misused as much in the hands of the sanctimonious as the corrupt.
    — Kimberley A. Strassel, WSJ, 7 Sep. 2017
  • The villains of his films are always the most sanctimonious players with the loudest moral outrage, on both the left and the right.
    — Matthew Marden., Town & Country, 20 Sep. 2021
  • For four years, Trump had tested and tried his sanctimonious No. 2, but Pence never broke.
    — Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker, 16 June 2022
  • If that’s not your first concern — if your moral high ground is colored by love of a rival or sanctimonious hypocrisy — let’s pipe down.
    — Graham Couch, Detroit Free Press, 21 Oct. 2017
  • Most yawn that Mark Zuckerberg and Pope Francis have given one too many sanctimonious rants that project their own hypocrisies.
    — Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 26 Sep. 2017
  • My Mom Died, has inspired sanctimonious comments on Goodreads and beyond, as well as praise for its brash sense of bravery.
    — Michelle Ruiz, Vogue, 18 Aug. 2022
  • That is not to suggest the novel is a catalog of horrors or a sanctimonious lecture.
    — Rumaan Alam, The New Republic, 13 Mar. 2020
  • But don’t think for a second that he and his powerful, often sanctimonious team are going to roll over and accept a ban.
    — Juliet MacUr, New York Times, 13 Dec. 2017
  • Sports writing scolds come off as sanctimonious at best.
    — Paul Daugherty, The Enquirer, 7 June 2021
  • Some, especially in the western parts of the country, have long seen him as too showy and sanctimonious, an elitist do-gooder who was never up to the job.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 20 Sep. 2019
  • There is nothing reminiscent here of the haughty and sanctimonious Thoreau who is folded into the pages of Walden.
    — Andrea Wulf, The Atlantic, 6 Oct. 2017
  • The hypocrisy of these sanctimonious liberals is just amazing.
    — Fox News Staff, Fox News, 16 Sep. 2022
  • Trump's in-your-face lying and hucksterism is almost preferable to the sanctimonious sycophancy of Pence.
    — Peter Bergen, CNN, 6 Mar. 2022
  • His sense of duty yields an effortful and sanctimonious movie that, at the same time, takes its place in a lamentable recent trend.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 7 Jan. 2020
  • But the good news is, this kind of embarrassment isn’t nearly enough to shake the Fighting Irish’s sanctimonious arrogance.
    — Steve Rosenbloom, chicagotribune.com, 1 May 2017
  • Why not take the more interesting (if challenging) route of explaining how the best films of the past surpass today’s sanctimonious films?
    — Armond White, National Review, 31 Mar. 2021
  • In addition, Mark too often comes off as surly or sanctimonious around Warren, as if the A-player is the only one of them mishandling their affair.
    — Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times, 19 Jan. 2023
  • What the most virulent, nauseatingly sanctimonious of the free speech woke folks want is freedom for their speech.
    — Bob Guccione Jr, Spin, 20 Sep. 2023
  • Pier Kids is comprised of many such off-handed, hard-hitting moments, scenes that constantly frustrate the easy readings of both the ignorant and the sanctimonious.
    — Keith Uhlich, The Hollywood Reporter, 22 July 2019
  • Hard to argue with that, but California's left knows a few tricks too, and the sometimes sanctimonious sanctuary movement certainly plays to the base.
    — Steve Lopez, latimes.com, 9 May 2018
  • The longstanding, sanctimonious network guideline of not showing yahoos running on the field should end.
    — Marc Bona, cleveland, 8 Feb. 2021
  • Gawker abhors the sanctimonious, the indignant, the self-righteous and the needlessly cruel.
    — Todd Spangler, Variety, 1 Feb. 2023
  • The campus Hillel chapter should have dismissed the apology as a stunt, sanctimonious and empty.
    — WSJ, 25 Oct. 2022
  • And before American fans get all sanctimonious, there have been problems in Major League Soccer, as well.
    — Nancy Armour, USA TODAY, 27 Nov. 2019
  • There's a sanctimonious part of me that would delight in persuading you to ignore this NCAA men's basketball tournament or, at the very least, to observe it from a jaundiced viewpoint.
    — Jerry Brewer, chicagotribune.com, 11 Mar. 2018
  • In keeping with the car's brutal new persona, the replacement chip promises a much less sanctimonious attitude.
    — Barry Winfield, WIRED, 1 May 1994
  • But not everyone believes the military is something Trump, of all people, should be sanctimonious about.
    — Isobel Thompson, vanityfair.com, 23 Oct. 2017
  • But despite the complaints and shaming, Halloween keeps growing — maybe because fun-seekers are tired of sanctimonious lectures.
    — Stu Bykofsky, Philly.com, 30 Oct. 2017
  • My desire for friends outweighed my duty to uphold the sanctimonious culinary standards of my parents’ homeland.
    — Carla Ciccone, Bon Appetit, 7 May 2018
  • There is something vicariously thrilling about the idea of taking down this cruel, sanctimonious man.
    — Meredith Blakestaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 26 Aug. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sanctimonious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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