religious
/rɪˈlɪdʒəs
/adjective
1Relating to or believing in a religion: both men were deeply religious and moralistic religious music...
- ‘Come here and get your DVD for later tonight,’ one of them suggested, as he blasted religious music.
- Through domestic items, religious ceremonies, music and oral histories we can see direct relations with past and present African cultures.
- My timing was right, and I dropped by the magnificent St. Stephen's as a special religious music program was in progress.
Synonyms
devout, pious, reverent, believing, godly, God-fearing, dutiful, saintly, holy, prayerful, churchgoing, practising, faithful, devoted, committed
1.1(Of a belief or practice) forming part of someone’s faith in a divine being: she has strong religious convictions...
- Grounded in religious beliefs and faith, watermen feel that man cannot and need not fully understand the blue crab.
- She didn't mean religious beliefs, only faith in some higher values, in some higher reality that made them feel secure in a very insecure situation.
- Many psychiatric inpatients indicate that spiritual / religious beliefs and practices help them to cope.
Synonyms
spiritual, theological, scriptural, doctrinal, church, churchly, ecclesiastical, holy, divine, celestial, heavenly, sacred, devotional, sanctified, consecrated, dedicated, hallowed;
schismatic, sectarian
1.2Belonging or relating to a monastic order or other group of people who are united by their practice of religion: religious houses were built on ancient pagan sites...
- Joseph II reduced the number of religious houses belonging to the contemplative orders.
- Pilgrimage to such a distant site was inevitably expensive, and often laymen are found mortgaging their estates to religious houses in order to raise the necessary finance.
- The Taliban emerged from Pakistan's universities and religious schools as a loosely organised student militia.
1.3Treated or regarded with a devotion and scrupulousness appropriate to worship: I have a religious aversion to reading manuals...
- But also you have to get rid of this free-trade rhetoric and jargon, because it's kind of a religious devotion to the notion of free trade.
- McCain shows an almost religious devotion to his causes - like campaign finance reform - and is brashly outspoken.
- Sounds like a program you'd watch with religious devotion, doesn't it?
Synonyms
scrupulous, conscientious, meticulous, sedulous, punctilious, zealous, strict, rigid, rigorous, exact, close, unfailing, unswerving, undeviating;
fussy, pedantic, fastidious, nitpicking, finicky, finical
noun (plural same)
A person bound by monastic vows.It was not, one would think, the normal one of a religious with a church.
Derivatives
religiousness
/ noun ...- Participants' ratings of their own religiousness or the importance of religion in their lives was used most often, but their effects were less consistent.
- And my early religiousness gradually developed into monotheism.
- In fact, there are now many empirical studies, both clinical and nonclinical, on religiousness and spirituality that are being published in top-tier research journals.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French, from Latin religiosus, from religio 'reverence, obligation' (see religion).