Displaying an exaggerated or affected righteousness or moral superiority.
When Mark heard Tom's speech about honesty, he felt angry. Tom always acted better than everyone else, but Mark knew he lied all the time. Tom’s sanctimonious words about always telling the truth seemed fake, especially because Tom never followed his own advice.
My boss delivered a sanctimonious speech on honesty, telling us that even small lies ruin a team. We all just looked at each other, because we knew he had lied on his expense report just last week. It was hard to take him seriously after that.
Every Sunday, Marcus would lecture his neighbors about their drinking and gambling, calling them sinners who needed to change their ways. Then last week, police arrested him for running an illegal poker ring out of his basement. His sanctimonious speeches suddenly made everyone sick to their stomachs.
During lunch, Jerry loudly scolded us for eating cookies before vegetables, waving his finger in a very sanctimonious way. Ten minutes later, we caught him hiding under the table with chocolate all over his face, proving just how hypocritically pious he truly was.
My cat gave a sanctimonious speech, with a series of judging meows, about the evils of eating from the trash. I later found him on the kitchen counter, happily licking the leftover grease from a pan he supposedly thought was so very wicked.
She always spoke in a sanctimonious tone, acting as if she was morally superior to everyone else. But behind her facade of piety, she was actually quite deceitful and selfish.
In the quaint town, there lived an elderly woman named Mrs. Hawthorne, who possessed an air of perpetual sanctimony. With her pristine white gloves and an ever-present prayer book, she seemed the epitome of piety. However, beneath her facade lay a concealed vice. Her devout demeanor served merely as a mask, concealing her true nature as a gossiping, spiteful woman who reveled in spreading rumors and tearing others down.
The town was cloaked in darkness, the only sound the distant wail of a lone wolf. The old church stood tall and foreboding, its windows shattered and its walls crumbling. Inside, the air was thick with the stench of decay and sanctimonious hypocrisy. A figure in tattered robes knelt before the altar, muttering prayers with a twisted smile on their face. As they rose, their eyes gleamed with an unholy light, revealing the true nature of their twisted devotion. The townspeople whispered of the sinister deeds done in the name of their supposed savior, a facade of piety masking a heart black with sin.
In the dim catacombs, the sanctimonious preacher's voice echoed, condemning the sins of others while his own shadowy deeds stunk of hypocrisy. As the sermon ended, the air grew cold and heavy, revealing his true nature. His pious facade crumbled, replaced by a sinister leer that sent shivers down the spines of his terrified listeners.
The village of Eldoria was known for its sanctimonious elders who preached about purity and righteousness. But behind closed doors, they indulged in forbidden pleasures and deceit. One day, a young girl named Lilah stumbled upon their hidden chambers and witnessed their true nature. Shocked by their hypocrisy, she vowed to expose their sanctimonious facade to the rest of the village. As she gathered evidence and prepared to confront the elders, she realized that true piety came from the heart, not from empty words and false appearances. And so, Lilah set out to bring about a change in Eldoria's corrupt leadership.
Everyone in the office found Mark’s attitude difficult to tolerate. He acted sanctimonious during meetings, loudly judging anyone who was late or unprepared, even though he often missed deadlines himself. His coworkers quickly grew tired of his hypocritically pious remarks and stopped inviting him to group projects.
My manager’s sanctimonious speech on corporate integrity felt completely hollow. He lectured us about honesty and teamwork, yet we all knew he regularly took credit for his junior employees’ work. We just stared at the table, waiting for the empty pronouncements to finally end.
The pastor spoke passionately about helping the poor, but Sarah knew he'd just bought his third luxury car. His sanctimonious sermons about charity rang hollow when he walked past homeless people without a glance. She was tired of sitting through his lectures on generosity while he hoarded wealth for himself.
During every team lunch, Carl reminded everyone to recycle their napkins, launching into sanctimonious lectures about saving the planet while sneaking his own mountain of plastic forks into the trash. If hypocrisy were recyclable, Carl would have single-handedly stopped climate change.
The celebrity trainer delivered a sanctimonious speech about the evils of processed sugar, only to be photographed later that night wrestling a raccoon for the last donut in a dumpster. His pious facade crumbled quite spectacularly, along with the pastry.
Julia's sanctimonious lectures about honesty always grated on her colleagues. She positioned herself as the office moral compass, yet she routinely took credit for others' work. Her hypocritically pious declarations only deepened their frustration, as everyone knew she seldom practiced the virtues she so ardently espoused.
My boss delivered a sanctimonious lecture on company ethics, chastising us for minor infractions. We all knew he was the one falsifying expense reports, making his moral grandstanding feel utterly hollow and infuriating, a blatant contradiction to the principles he espoused.
The pastor condemned gambling from the pulpit every Sunday, his voice trembling with righteous fury about moral degeneracy. Then my uncle spotted him at the racetrack, betting hundreds on horses while checking over his shoulder. His sanctimonious sermons suddenly rang hollow, exposed as pure theater masking his own vices.
Despite spending his weekends surreptitiously binge-watching reality television, Harold delivered sanctimonious lectures at brunch, extolling the spiritual perils of screen time. His friends stifled laughter as he pontificated, his hypocritically pious tirades invariably ending just before his own phone chirped with reminders for new episodes.
Baron von Hess delivered a sanctimonious jeremiad against profligate spending, a curious position given that his pet ferret wore a diamond-encrusted monocle and was currently being chauffeured home in a diminutive, custom-built Rolls-Royce.
Challenging — Rare, high-register words for serious word lovers.