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puritanical

UK/pjʊəɹ.ɪˈtæn.ɪ.kəl/US/pjɚ.ɪˈtæn.ɪ.kl̩/
adjectiveC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,366 of 15,258neutral

Puritanical means strict and disapproving about pleasure. A puritanical streak, puritanical rules, puritanical about drink.

It is always a criticism now and is applied to attitudes rather than to religion. The Puritans it comes from were a real movement, and the word is unfair to them in the same way most such words are.

Definitions of puritanical

  1. 1adjectivepuritanicalStrict and disapproving about pleasure.C2

    “Her puritanical parents didn't allow dancing, music or television in the house.”

puritanical is a quality.

Where it comes from

From puritanic + -al.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

puritanical in the wild

  • The boors are four merchants of Venice, who represent the old conservative, puritanical tradition of the Venetian middle classes, who are pitted against Venice's "new frivolity".

    The Boors

  • Henry Rollins stars as the puritanical Priest Svengali.

    Gutterdämmerung

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.