Meanings
comparative more self-righteous · superlative most self-righteous
- Piously self-assured and smugly moralistic.
Near-synonyms: smug, complacent; sanctimonious
2 more examples
And is it not possible, Mr. Hier, that people are reacting (in a contemptible way, certainly) against your self-righteous bawling?
2003 August 16, vjmorton, “Not-so-brave heart”, in Rightwing Film Geek“God's blood, Thomas, self-righteous prickery is not the preserve of the English!”
2017, Jules Radcliffe, Penitent PirateSynonyms: smug, complacent, sanctimonious
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivePiously self-assured and smugly moralistic.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectiveexcessively or hypocritically pious
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*swé?
- Proto-Indo-European*selbʰ-
- Proto-Germanic*selbaz
- Old Englishself
- Old Englishself-
- Middle Englishself-
- Englishself-
- Englishrighteous
- Englishself-righteous
Translations
Bulgarian самоуве́рен
- самоуве́рен (samouvéren)piously self-assured and smugly moralistic
Catalan purità, gata maula
- puritàpiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- gata maulapiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
Chinese Mandarin 自以為是 /自以为是
- 自以為是 /自以为是 (zìyǐwéishì)piously self-assured and smugly moralistic
Danish selvretfærdig
- selvretfærdigpiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
Esperanto farisea
- fariseapiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
Finnish omahyväinen, hurskasteleva
- omahyväinenpiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- hurskastelevapiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- tekohurskaspiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
French bien-pensant
- bien-pensantpiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
German selbstgerecht
- selbstgerechtpiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
Hungarian önelégült, öntelt
- önelégültpiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- önteltpiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- szenteskedőpiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- szentfazékpiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
Irish ceartaiseach
- ceartaiseachpiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
Italian farisaico
- farisaicopiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
Korean 고지식하다
- 고지식하다 (gojisikhada)piously self-assured and smugly moralistic
Norwegian Bokmål selvrettferdig, fariseisk
- selvrettferdigpiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- fariseiskpiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
Polish pyszałkowaty, przemądrzały
- pyszałkowatypiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- przemądrzałypiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- zarozumiałypiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- zadufanypiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- zadufany w sobiepiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
Portuguese farisaico
- farisaicopiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
Russian самодово́льный, самоуве́ренный
- самодово́льный (samodovólʹnyj)piously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- самоуве́ренный (samouvérennyj)piously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- ха́нжеский (xánžeskij)piously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- фарисе́йский (fariséjskij)piously self-assured and smugly moralistic
Spanish mojigato, creído
- mojigatopiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- creídopiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- santurrónpiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- farisaicopiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
Swedish egenrättfärdig, självrättfärdig
- egenrättfärdigpiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
- självrättfärdigpiously self-assured and smugly moralistic
Cite this entry
self-righteous. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-righteous
“self-righteous.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-righteous. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “self-righteous,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-righteous.
Source: self-righteous on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.