Pious vs Worldly - What's the difference?
pious | worldly |
Of or pertaining to piety, exhibiting piety, devout, godfearing.
* 2014, (Paul Salopek), Blessed. Cursed. Claimed. , National Geographic (December 2014)[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text]
Concerned with human or earthly matters, physical as opposed to spiritual.
* 1868 , , Part Two, Chapter Twenty-four: Gossip,
* , Book 1: Adi Parva, Section LXXXV,
* 1889 , , Chapter VIII,
* 1910 , , Chapter 1, part 3,
Concerned with secular rather than sacred matters.
Sophisticated, especially because of surfeit; versed in the ways of the world.
As adjectives the difference between pious and worldly
is that pious is of or pertaining to piety, exhibiting piety, devout, godfearing while worldly is concerned with human or earthly matters, physical as opposed to spiritual.As an adverb worldly is
in a worldly manner.pious
English
Adjective
(-)- Its male residents dress like crows: heavy black suits, black Borsalino hats, the old grandfathers hugely whiskered and the boys in peot, the curled sidelocks of the pious .
Usage notes
* Sometimes used pejoratively, in the sense of "mistaken" or "false" piety, as in "pious errors", "pious frauds".Synonyms
* reverent, reverential, dutiful, religious, devout, godlyAntonyms
* (of or pertaining to piety) impious, independent, profaneDerived terms
* piously * piousnessworldly
English
Adjective
(en-adj)- These attributes, in spite of poverty and the strict integrity which shut him out from the more worldly successes, attracted to him many admirable persons, as naturally as sweet herbs draw bees, and as naturally he gave them the honey into which fifty years of hard experience had distilled no bitter drop.
- Thirst of enjoyment, therefore, should be given up. Indeed, true happiness belongeth to them that have cast off their thirst for worldly objects--a thirst which is difficult to be thrown off by the wicked and the sinful, which faileth not with the failing life, and which is truly the fatal disease of man.
- The conviction that my personal, worldly life was something real and good constituted the misunderstanding, the obstacle, that prevented me from comprehending Jesus doctrine.
- We have actually contrived to invent a new kind of hypocrite. The old hypocrite, Tartuffe or Pecksniff, was a man whose aims were really worldly' and practical, while he pretended that they were religious. The new hypocrite is one whose aims are really religious, while he pretends that they are ' worldly and practical.