''pharisaical'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''pharisaical'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260331180822-00-⌔

pharisaical - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

pharisaical (comparative more pharisaical, superlative most pharisaical)

• Of or pertaining to the Pharisees. [from 16th c.]
• (chiefly Christianity) Emphasizing the observance of ritual or practice over the meaning; self-righteous, hypocritical. [from 16th c.]
  • ✤ Perhaps no man in the world had less than Douglas the pharisaical precision of Methodism; he was totally averse to their sudden and evanescent flights of enthusiasm, their frantic ravings of intemperate zeal in devotion, as if invoking a vindictive and implacable Deity; […]¹
  • ✤ Thus Aurobindo Ghose stated that the puritanical, pharisaical British conquered in the name of liberty and usurped under the cloak of altruism.²

Etymology

From Late Latin Pharisaicus +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /faɹɪˈseɪk(ə)l/

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. 1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter XVIII, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 235: ↩

2. 2012, Piers Brendon, ‘Beginning the Dissent’, Literary Review, volume 401: ↩

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