puritanical

UK/pjʊəɹ.ɪˈtæn.ɪ.kəl//pjɚ.ɪˈtæn.ɪ.kl̩/

puritanical adjective: of or pertaining to the Puritans, or to their doctrines and practice.

Adjective (1)

puritanical (comparative more puritanical, superlative most puritanical)

Of or pertaining to the Puritans, or to their doctrines and practice.
- The host proposed divers puritanical fancies—nay, once hinted at a head of Cromwell himself; but the hostess overruled all these proposals, and stood firm by the Sun.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 192
Precise in observance of legal or religious requirements; strict; overscrupulous; rigid (often used by way of reproach or contempt).
- Mrs. Barrymore is of interest to me. She is a heavy, solid person, very limited, intensely respectable, and inclined to be puritanical. You could hardly conceive a less emotional subject. Yet I have told you how, on the first night here, I heard her sobbing bitterly, and since then I have more than...1901 August – 1902 April, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “First Report of Dr. Watson”, in The Hound of the Baskervilles: Another Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, London: George Newnes, […], published 1902...
- Exogamy […] has few or none of the quaint superstitions which lend a certain picturesque charm to totemism. It is, so to say, a stern Puritanical institution. Its rigid logic, its complex rules, its elaborate terminology, its labyrinthine systems of relationship, it presents an aspect somewhat hard...1910, James George Frazer, Totemism and Exogamy, volume 1, page xiv

puritanical (plural puritanicals)

Puritanical (comparative more Puritanical, superlative most Puritanical)

Alternative letter-case form of puritanical.
- President Upham delivered a lengthy speech which covered the entire history of the Society along with some Puritanical sniffing.1965, H[arold] Earle Johnson, Hallelujah, Amen!: The Story of the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, Boston, Mass.: Bruce Humphries, page 94
- […] in his writings he [Benjamin Franklin] took an earthy, practical view of sex that outraged Puritanical sentiment.1990 May 1, “The wisdom of Benjamin Franklin”, in Saturday Evening Post

She is a heavy, solid person, very limited, intensely respectable, and inclined to be puritanical.1901 August – 1902 April, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “First Report of Dr. Watson”, in The Hound of the Baskervilles: Another Adventure of...
It is, so to say, a stern Puritanical institution.1910, James George Frazer, Totemism and Exogamy, volume 1, page xiv:
We have a puritanical taboo against talking about sexuality directly, yet we are fine with the sexual images that pervade television and glossy magazines.2014 May 21, Rey Junco, “What’s the big deal about sexting?”, in CNN:

From puritanic + -al.

What does puritanical mean?: Puritanical means of or pertaining to the Puritans, or to their doctrines and practice.
How do you use puritanical in a sentence?: She is a heavy, solid person, very limited, intensely respectable, and inclined to be puritanical.
What part of speech is puritanical?: Puritanical can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce puritanical?: Puritanical is pronounced /pjʊəɹ.ɪˈtæn.ɪ.kəl/ (UK).

Adapted from Wiktionary: puritanical (page history and authors); Puritanical (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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Cite this entry: “puritanical.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/puritanical. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.