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religious Definition

re·li·gious (ri lijəs)

adjective

  1. characterized by adherence to religion or a religion; devout; pious; godly
  2. of, concerned with, appropriate to, or teaching religion religious books
  3. belonging to a community of monks, nuns, etc.
  4. conscientiously exact; careful; scrupulous

Etymology: OFr < L religiosus

noun pl. -·gious

a member of a community of monks, nuns, etc.

religious Related Forms
re·li·giously adverb re·li·gious·ness noun
religious Synonyms

religious

modif.

  1. Pertaining to religion

    sacred, spiritual, holy, divine, theological, ethical, moral, ecclesiastical, clerical, canonical, supernatural, sacrosanct, churchly, liturgical, theistic, deistic, monotheistic, polytheistic, pantheistic, sacerdotal, priestly, pontifical, ministerial.

    Antonyms secular, worldly*, earthly. *

  2. Adhering to a religion

    devout, pious, godly, sanctimonious, pietistic, God-fearing, orthodox, puritanical, reverent, reverential, believing, faithful, spiritual-minded, observant, practicing, church-going, evangelistic, born-again, revivalistic, fanatic, unworldly; see also Christian, holy 2.

    Antonyms atheistic*, agnostic*, nonbelieving.

  3. Scrupulous

    methodical, minute, thorough; see careful.

religious stresses faith in a particular religion and constant adherence to its tenets to lead a religious life; devout implies sincere, worshipful devotion to one's faith or religion; pious suggests scrupulous adherence to the forms of one's religion but may, in derogatory usage, connote hypocrisy the pious burghers who defraud their tenants; sanctimonious in current usage implies a hypocritical pretense of piety or devoutness and often connotes smugness or haughtiness his sanctimonious disapproval of dancing

religious Usage Examples

Infinitive complement

  • enjoy: You don't have to be religious to enjoy the uplifting, passionate, exciting sounds of gospel music.

Used with adjective complement

  • become: She did not become religious, only working out the effects of the religious music.
  • get: Without getting deeply religious, what should it mean to the church?
  • look: You may say that secular modernity does not look particularly religious.

Modifies a noun

  • belief: Whatever students ' religious beliefs, the Chaplain is always happy to talk to them.
  • hatred: I'm talking here of the plans to create an offense of ' incitement to religious hatred ' .
  • leader: They had been whipped into a frenzy by religious leaders.
  • affiliation: We found gaps in our data concerning the religious affiliation of RUC members.
  • observance: Religious observance Your religion or beliefs may mean you have to pray at set times of day.
  • tradition: None of them have any place in the religious traditions of this country.

Modifying Another Word

  • devoutly: The young Brits Bush seems to regard as the embodiment of evil are ordinary lads, neither especially political not devoutly religious.
  • deeply: Without getting deeply religious, what should it mean to the church?
  • purely: It is art; it is not purely religious art that doesn't have its attractions.
  • distinctly: Yes, my father was a ' distinctly religious man, ' but not a pious.
  • almost: Our -ism is declared in our almost religious devotion to a life determined, not from within ourselves, but by divine technological whim.
  • particularly: You may say that secular modernity does not look particularly religious.

Preposition: in

  • nature: Once again, Kurtz is not making a comment that is directly religious in nature.
religious Quotes

All known religious beliefs, whether simple or complex, present one common characteristic: they presuppose a classification of all things, real and ideal, of which men think, into two classes or opposed groups, generally designated†profane and sacred.

—Durkheim, EŁ  mile

A belief is made religious, not so much by its content, as rather by the way it is held.

—Cupitt, Rev Don

Be a good manöbe virtuousöbe religiousöbe a good man. Nothing else will give you any comfort when you come to lie here.

—Scott, Sir Walter

But let my due feet never fail To walk the studious cloister's pale, And love the high embowe'  d roof, With antic pillars massy proof, And storied windows richly dight Casting a dim religious light.

—Milton,John

Thereisa species of personcalleda'ModernChurchman' who draws the full salary of a beneficed clergyman and need not commit himself to any religious belief.

—Waugh, Evelyn Arthur StJohn

The more the fruits of knowledge become accessible to men, the more widespread is the decline of religious belief.

—Freud, Sigmund

It is only in science, I find, that we can get outside ourselves. It's realistic, and to a great degree verifiable, and it has this tremendous stage on which it plays. I have the same feelingöto a certain degreeöabout some religious expressions†but only to a certain degree. For me, the proper study of mankind is science, which also means that the proper study of mankind is man.

—Rabi, Isidor Isaac

The expedition had now performed its functions. I saw that old father Nile without any doubt rises in the Victoria Nyanza, and as I had foretold, that lake is the great source of the holy river which cradled the first expounder of our religious belief.

—Speke,John Hanning

I hope I will be religious again but as for reganing my charecter I despare for it.

—Fleming, Marjory

Yes, the labour movement was truly religious, like Judaism itself. It was one of those things you believed in forall mankind and didn't care about fora second inyour own life.

—Wolfe,Tom (Thomas Kennerley)

Man is by his constitution a religious animal; atheism is against not only our reason, but our instincts.

—Burke, Edmund

The sense of wonder that is the sixth sense. And it is the natural religious sense.

—Lawrence, D(avid) H(erbert)

The three most important things a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money, and his religious opinions.

—Butler, Samuel

It was here that I suspended my religious inquiries (aged 17).

—Gibbon, Edward

Religious law is like the grammar of language. Any language isgoverned by such rules; otherwise it ceases to be a language. But within them, you can say many different sentences and write many different books.

—Sacks,Jonathan

People can say what they like about the decay of Christianity; the religious system that produced green Chartreuse can never really die.

—Saki pseudonym of  Hector Hugh Munro

Today educated people look upon traditional religious tiesöCatholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Jewishöas matters of social pedigree. It is only art that they look upon religiously.

—Wolfe,Tom (Thomas Kennerley)

I am not interested in relationships of color or form or anything else† I am interested only in expressing the basic human emotionsötragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so onöand the fact that lots of people breakdown and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I communicate with those basic human emotions. The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationships, then you miss the point!

—Rothko, Mark originally Marcus Rothkovitch

   If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

—Bible (NewTestament)

   Totakeanalmost religiousview, thisearthisnothing very special.There have probably been millions of earths just like ours each producing a particular intelligent species. That isnottosay thattheyall developed well, thattheyall achieved some sort of perfection. And if the planner made lots of them and some of them chose to destroy themselves,thenwe canonlysupposethattheplanner is a hard and practical man.

—Hoyle, Sir Fred

John Grubby, who was short and stout And troubled with religious doubt, Refused about the age of three To sit upon the curate's knee.

—Chesterton, G(ilbert) K(eith)

With all allowance made for Marx's erudition and his historic impact upon the social sciences, especially sociology, it is as an art united with prophecy, virtually religious prophecy, that Marxism survives.

—Nisbet, Robert

Wearea religiouspeoplewhose institutionspresuppose a Supreme Being.

—Douglas, (George) Norman

Browse dictionary entries near religious

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