censorious
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- anticensorious adjective
- anticensoriously adverb
- anticensoriousness noun
- censoriously adverb
- censoriousness noun
- noncensorious adjective
- noncensoriously adverb
- noncensoriousness noun
- overcensorious adjective
- overcensoriously adverb
- overcensoriousness noun
- uncensorious adjective
- uncensoriously adverb
- uncensoriousness noun
Etymology
Origin of censorious
1530–40; < Latin cēnsōrius of a censor, hence, austere, moral; censor, -tory 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And then there are “family values,” a whole range of social issues usually related to sexual behavior and typically expressed in censorious, moralizing terms.
From Salon • Feb. 7, 2026
We are seeing a censorious instinct bubbling up in politicians alarmed by these developments.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 4, 2026
Even after her mother’s death in 2020 at 96, that censorious voice remained “embedded in my most primitive responses, in my very limbic system.”
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 17, 2025
Stories of censorious undergraduates and ridiculous newspeak in the U.S. found grateful consumers in French, German, and U.K. media.
From Slate • Jan. 5, 2025
Much advice on style is stern and censorious.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
