Meaning & use
Puritan
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Meanings
nouncountablereligion
A member of a strict Protestant group in sixteenth and seventeenth century England that wanted simpler church worship and a stricter way of living.
Grammar: Capitalized when it names the historical group; the plural is Puritans.
Patterns
- the Puritans
Many Puritans left England to start new communities in North America.
The Puritans disliked theater, dancing and elaborate church ceremony.
A Puritan preacher gave the sermon in the meeting house.
nouncountabledisapproving
A person with very strict moral views who disapproves of pleasure and luxury; usually written with a small p.
Grammar: Often lowercase and used in a critical or joking way: my aunt is a puritan about money.
Patterns
- be a puritan about something
My uncle is a real puritan and refuses to watch anything on television but the news.
Don't be such a puritan; one slice of cake will not hurt you.
She was a puritan about spending and never bought anything she did not need.
Word forms
| plural | Puritans |
|---|
Common combinations
- Puritan settlers
- Puritan settlers founded towns across New England.
- Puritan beliefs
- Puritan beliefs shaped early American law.
- Puritan work ethic
- He credits the Puritan work ethic for his success.
- Puritan values
- The town was built on Puritan values of hard work and plain living.
- a bit of a puritan
- He is a bit of a puritan about swearing.
Synonyms and how they differ
- prude
- Prude is more insulting and concerns shyness about sex or manners, while puritan covers any strict morality.
- killjoy
- Killjoy is informal and about spoiling others' fun, whereas puritan describes the person's own strict principles.
- moralist
- A moralist simply lectures on right and wrong, with less sense of denying pleasure.
- ascetic
- An ascetic gives up pleasures for themselves, usually for spiritual reasons, but a puritan also disapproves of others enjoying them.
Opposites
Word family
- Puritanism noun
- the beliefs and practices of the Puritans, or very strict morality
- puritanical adjective
- very strict about morals and pleasure
- puritanically adverb
- in a strict, moralistic way
- purist noun
- someone who insists on correctness or purity of a thing
Commonly confused: Puritan or purist? Puritan or pure?
Puritan vs purist
A purist cares about keeping something correct or pure, such as language or music, while a puritan is about strict morals and religion.
Puritan vs pure
Pure means unmixed or clean; puritan comes from the idea of purifying the church.
Practice
Which person could most naturally be called a puritan in the lowercase sense?
Choose one answer.
A lowercase puritan has strict moral attitudes toward pleasure. The other hobbies and habits say nothing about morals.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “Puritan”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.