# pious

Pronunciation: say "PY-uhs" /ˈpaɪəs/

## Adjective

1. Deeply religious and devoted to God, or showing or connected with such devotion, as in pious works.
   - Simple: Very religious, or done out of religious feeling, like gifts to a church.
   - _Her pious grandmother attended Mass every morning before breakfast._
   - _The valley was home to a small community of pious farmers who kept the Sabbath strictly._
2. Making a show of one's own virtue, especially compared with others; sanctimonious and judgmental.
   - Simple: Acting as if you are better or more moral than other people.
   - _I'm tired of his pious lectures about how everyone else wastes money._
   - _The senator's pious statements about honesty rang hollow after the scandal._
3. Used of a hope, wish or statement that is genuinely and kindly meant yet has little chance of being fulfilled or of achieving anything.
   - Simple: Describes a hope, wish or statement that is honest and kindly meant but will probably not come true or change anything.
   - _Calls for both sides to show restraint remained pious hopes as the shelling continued._
   - _Without new funding, the goal of zero traffic deaths within five years is little more than a pious aspiration._

## Origin

Borrowed from Latin pius, “pious, dutiful, devout,” from Proto-Indo-European *pewH-, “pure.” It may be related to Old English fǣle, “faithful, good.”

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/pious (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).