Censorious

//sɛnˈsɔɹiəs// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Addicted to censure and scolding; apt to blame or condemn; severe in making remarks on others, or on their writings or manners.

    "Be not too rigidly Cenſorious, / A ſtring may jarr in the beſt Maſters hand, / And the moſt skilfull Archer miſs his aim; / But in a Poem elegantly writ, / I will not quarrel with a ſlight miſtake, / Such as our Natures frailty may excuſe; […]"

  2. 2
    Implying or expressing censure.

    "censorious remarks"

  3. 3
    Tending to engage in or support censorship. proscribed

    "Chick-Fil-A^([sic]) has survived and thrived because they served everyone AND refused to cater to the cancel culture. Now they’ve caved at the behest of the censorious Left. This is a terrible move and just the latest indicator that the center cannot hold."

Adjective
  1. 1
    harshly critical or expressing censure wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
criticalabusiveaccusatoryback-bitingbelittlingbitchy

Example

More examples

"Censorious people delight in casting blame."

Etymology

From Latin cēnsōrius (“of or pertaining to a censor; severe”). In sense 3 ("tending to engage in or support censorship"), reanalyzed as censor + -ious.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.