Adjacent Words

Religious definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

RELIG'IOUS, a. [L. religiosus.]
1. Pertaining or relating to religion; as a religious society; a religious sect; a religious place; religious subjects.
2. Pious; godly; loving and reverencing the Supreme Being and obeying his precepts; as a religious man.
3. Devoted to the practice of religion; as a religious life.
4. Teaching religion; containing religious subject or the doctrines and precepts of religion, or the discussion of topics of religion; as a religious book.
5. Exact; strict; such as religion requires; as a religious observance of vows or promises.
6. Engaged by vows to a monastic life; as a religious order or fraternity.
7. Appropriated to the performance of sacred or religious duties; as a religious house.
RELIG'IOUS, n. A person bound by monastic vows, or sequestered from secular concerns and devoted to a life of piety and devotion; a monk or friar; a nun.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: concerned with sacred matters or religion or the church; "religious texts"; "a member of a religious order"; "lords temporal and spiritual"; "spiritual leaders"; "spiritual songs" [syn: religious, spiritual]
2: having or showing belief in and reverence for a deity; "a religious man"; "religious attitude" [ant: irreligious]
3: of or relating to clergy bound by monastic vows; "the religious or regular clergy conducts the service" [ant: secular]
4: extremely scrupulous and conscientious; "religious in observing the rules of health" n
1: a member of a religious order who is bound by vows of poverty and chastity and obedience

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French religius, from Latin religiosus, from religio Date: 13th century 1. relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity <a religious person> <religious attitudes> 2. of, relating to, or devoted to religious beliefs or observances <joined a religious order> 3. a. scrupulously and conscientiously faithful b. fervent, zealous • religiously adverb • religiousness noun II. noun (plural religious) Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French religius, from religius, adjective Date: 13th century a member of a religious order under monastic vows

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. 1 devoted to religion; pious, devout. 2 of or concerned with religion. 3 of or belonging to a monastic order. 4 scrupulous, conscientious (a religious attention to detail). --n. (pl. same) a person bound by monastic vows. Derivatives: religiously adv. religiousness n. Etymology: ME f. AF religius, OF religious f. L religiosus (as RELIGION)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Religious Re*li"gious, n. A person bound by monastic vows, or sequestered from secular concern, and devoted to a life of piety and religion; a monk or friar; a nun. --Addison.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Religious Re*li"gious (r?-l?j"?s), a. [OF. religius, religious, F. religieux, from L. religiosus. See Religion.] 1. Of or pertaining to religion; concerned with religion; teaching, or setting forth, religion; set apart to religion; as, a religious society; a religious sect; a religious place; religious subjects, books, teachers, houses, wars. Our law forbids at their religious rites My presence. --Milton. 2. Possessing, or conforming to, religion; pious; godly; as, a religious man, life, behavior, etc. Men whose lives Religious titled them the sons of God. --Mlton 3. Scrupulously faithful or exact; strict. Thus, Indianlike, Religious in my error, I adore The sun, that looks upon his worshiper. --Shak. 4. Belonging to a religious order; bound by vows. One of them is religious. --Chaucer. Syn: Pious; godly; holy; devout; devotional; conscientious; strict; rogod; exact.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. You use religious to describe things that are connected with religion or with one particular religion. ...religious groups. ...different religious beliefs. ADJ: ADJ n • religiously India has always been one of the most religiously diverse countries. ADV: usu ADV adj/adv, ADV -ed 2. Someone who is religious has a strong belief in a god or gods. They are both very religious and felt it was a gift from God. ADJ 3. see also religiously

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Devout, holy, godly, pious, devotional. 2. Conscientious, scrupulous, exact, strict, rigid.

Moby Thesaurus

Christian, Christianlike, Christianly, God-fearing, Mariological, abbacomes, abbot, accurate, adoring, anthropomorphic, anthropotheistic, ascetic, attentive, awesome, awful, beadsman, believing, brother, caloyer, canonic, careful, celibate, cenobite, churchgoing, close, conscientious, constant, conventual, conventual prior, correct, cosmotheistic, critical, cultish, cultist, cultistic, deistic, delicate, demanding, detailed, devoted, devout, direct, ditheistic, divine, doctrinal, doctrinary, dutiful, ethical, even, exact, exacting, exigent, express, exquisite, faithful, fastidious, fine, finical, finicking, finicky, friar, fussy, godly, grand prior, heavenly, hermit, hieromonach, holy, honest, honorable, ineffable, inenarrable, inerrable, inerrant, inexpressible, infallible, inviolable, inviolate, just, lay abbot, lay brother, mathematical, mendicant, meticulous, micrometrically precise, microscopic, minute, monastic, monk, monotheistic, moral, narrow, nice, noble, numinous, overconscientious, overscrupulous, palmer, pantheistic, particular, physicomorphic, physicotheological, pietistic, pilgrim, pillar saint, pillarist, pinpoint, pious, polytheistic, prayerful, precise, precisianistic, precisionistic, prior, punctilious, punctual, refined, religieux, religiously exact, reverent, reverential, righteous, rigid, rigorous, sacred, sacrosanct, scientific, scientifically exact, scrupulous, scrutinizing, severe, solemn, spiritual, spiritual-minded, square, staunch, steadfast, strict, stylite, subtle, tender-conscienced, theistic, theological, tritheistic, true, undeviating, unerring, unspeakable, unswerving, untouchable, unutterable, upright, venerable, venerational, venerative, virtuous, worshipful