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puritanical

[pyoor-i-tan-i-kuhl] / ˌpyʊər 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.

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

New York and New England went on to become competing centers of power and ideology: one pluralistic and globally-minded; the other moralistic, monocultural and, well, puritanical.

From Salon • Mar. 15, 2025

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

From Slate • Mar. 26, 2024

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




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