religious
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Having or showing belief in and reverence for a deity.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rihlijuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɹɪˈlɪdʒəs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Committed to the practice or adherence of religion.
Concerning religion.
Highly dedicated, as one would be to a religion.
noun
A member of a religious order, congregation, or certain other forms of consecrated life, i.e. a monk, nun, sister, brother, friar, or other religious priest.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A member of a religious order, congregation, or certain other forms of consecrated life, i.e. a monk, nun, sister, brother, friar, or other religious priest.
Used this way, religious is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Relating to religion or religious works.
Concerned with religion or religious purposes.
Devoted to religion or to religious feelings and duties.
Involving members of different religions.
Of or pertaining to God or a place of worship.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A ceremony having religious meaning.
A system of religious beliefs and rituals.
The written body of teachings of a religious group that are generally accepted by that group.
A festival having religious significance.
A day specified for religious observance.
Leader of a religious order.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- secularadjective
- persecutionnoun
- judaismnoun
- islamnoun
- buddhismnoun
- sectnoun
- congregationnoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Antonyms
Sense: committed to the practice or adherence of religion
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.