Righteous
adj, verb, slang ·Common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 To make righteous; specifically, to justify religiously, to absolve from sin.
"Thus for the purposes of being ‘righteoused’, the Law was irrelevant; yet Paul could not bear to see all the Law disappear."
- 1 Free from sin or guilt.
"The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bolde as a lyon."
- 2 Moral and virtuous, perhaps to the point of sanctimony.
"Human beings should take a righteous path, and so should art. We should promote kindness and beauty through art."
- 3 Justified morally.
"righteous indignation"
- 4 Awesome; great. US, slang
"The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads - they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude."
- 5 Major; large; significant. US, slang
"He found Richard in one piece near a large circular container, thankfully, staring at a righteous mess of blood and gore."
- 1 morally justified wordnet
- 2 characterized by or proceeding from accepted standards of morality or justice wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Gladly pass the souls of the righteous to the golden seat of Ahura Mazda, to the golden seat of the Amesha-Spentas, to the Garô-nmânem, the abode of Ahura Mazda, the abode of the Amesha-Spentas, the abode of all the other holy beings."
Etymology
From earlier rightuous, rightwose, rightwos, rightwise, from Middle English rightwise, rightwis, from Old English rihtwīs (“righteous, just”), corresponding to right + -wise (with assimilation of second element to -ous), or to right + wise (“way, manner”). Cognate with Scots richtwis (“righteous”), Old High German rehtwīsic (“righteous, just”), Icelandic réttvíss (“righteous, just”). Compare also thefteous, mighteous.
Related phrases
More for "righteous"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.