parochial

comparative more parochial · superlative most parochial

1. Pertaining to a parish.

   The parish council handles parochial affairs. [civil context]

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   The rector and vestry handle parochial affairs. [church context]

2. derogatoryCharacterized by an unsophisticated focus on local concerns to the exclusion of wider contexts; elementary in scope or outlook.

   The use of simple, primary colors in the painting gave it a parochial feel.

   5 more examples

   Some people in the United States have been accused of taking a parochial view, of not being interested in international matters.

   But for men of principle and honour and straightforward thought there could be no middle course and no paltering with petty issues of party or parochial advantage.

   1918 February 1, Daniel Desmond Sheehan, “Why I Joined The Army”, in Daily Express, London

   Its atmosphere might have been provincial, but it was never merely parochial.

   1969, T.C. Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830, page 341

   Gay USA would be of interest to both straight and gay audiences, but because it deals with gay people some bookers or distributors might feel that it is too parochial.

   1977 December 17, Michael Bronski, Arthur Bressan, “Bressan's "Politics Of Celebration"”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 24, page 9

   The society had apparently been formed the previous year, but as the Cheltenham Spa Railway Society, which sounded rather parochial and unambitious - particularly as (by all accounts) its founders had gathered in a garden shed in the town.

   2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques Cheltenham (1928)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 60

plural parochials

1. A parochial individual.

   Australia is divided between cosmopolitans and parochials.

   2022, Sumeyya Ilanbey, Daniel Andrews

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   If the vast majority of the citizens of our Southeast Asian countries are subjects rather than parochials, the question is: are they also participants?

   2006, Ian Marsh, Democratisation, Governance and Regionalism in East and Southeast Asia