PIETY
What does "PIETY" mean?
Deep reverence for God or religion, or dutiful devotion to family and duty.
Meanings
- Devout reverence toward God or earnest religious observance. Her piety showed in the quiet hours she spent in prayer. formal
- Faithful loyalty and dutiful respect toward parents, family, or country. Filial piety required him to care for his aging parents. formal
- A pious act, belief, or conventional expression, sometimes used skeptically. The speech was full of comfortable pieties and no real plan. figurative
Did you know?
- 'Piety' and 'pity' were once the same word, both from Latin 'pietas' - devotion and compassion only split into separate English words later, which is why mercy still sounds a little holy.
Word origin
From Latin 'pietas' (dutifulness, devotion to gods and family) via Old French 'piete'; the same root gives 'pity', which split off as a separate word for compassion.
Remember it
PIETY = PIE + TY: think of dutiful hands carrying a PIE to the altar.
A little poem
She kneels before the candle's small gold tongue,
not asking, only staying near the flame-
devotion is the prayer that needs no name.
tercet
What it teaches
Real devotion is shown in quiet duty, not in well-rehearsed pieties.
Quick facts
What does PIETY mean?
Deep reverence for God or religion, or dutiful devotion to family and duty.
Is PIETY a valid word?
Yes — PIETY is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is PIETY?
PIETY has 5 letters and 3 syllables.
Where does PIETY come from?
From Latin 'pietas' (dutifulness, devotion to gods and family) via Old French 'piete'; the same root gives 'pity', which split off as a separate word for compassion.
What can PIETY teach us?
Real devotion is shown in quiet duty, not in well-rehearsed pieties.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.