What's the difference between devout and pious?

Devout


Definition:

  • (v. t.) Devoted to religion or to religious feelings and duties; absorbed in religious exercises; given to devotion; pious; reverent; religious.
  • (v. t.) Expressing devotion or piety; as, eyes devout; sighs devout; a devout posture.
  • (v. t.) Warmly devoted; hearty; sincere; earnest; as, devout wishes for one's welfare.
  • (n.) A devotee.
  • (n.) A devotional composition, or part of a composition; devotion.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Could a devout Muslim be a wholehearted supporter of Ukip?
  • (2) Until she was 14 or so Clare was just as devout, going to mass each morning, joining the Legion of Mary, visiting old ladies.
  • (3) Bae, a Washington state resident described by friends as a devout Christian and a tour operator, is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009.
  • (4) Trump did seem to recognize that no one would mistake him for a devout evangelical.
  • (5) Given, for example, that over half of them have identified as devout, it is hard to imagine what would have persuaded the 11 peers behind an anti-Falconer paper, An Analysis of the Assisted Dying Bill , to look kindly upon its provisions, but the document constructs an ostensibly faith-free, "clear-thinking" case against, which is nonetheless replete with routine frighteners and selective misrepresentation.
  • (6) Although a devout Muslim herself, my mother expressed the opinion, during my last visit to Egypt, that it was about time that Muslim countries stopped regarding every new born as a default Muslim.
  • (7) Hernández, 27 – who contracted Zika in September but was also told it was an allergy – is a devout Catholic and opposes abortion in any circumstance.
  • (8) But such an idea is not part of "sex education" and remains a heresy for those of faith, though the secular belief in this idea too is fairly devout.
  • (9) He says his mother was devout: It doesn't matter what comes in life, you can always turn to the Lord.
  • (10) A devout Christian, Bae has acknowledged he conducted religious services in North Korea, which has long been hostile to Westerners advocating religious causes.
  • (11) Local community members described both men as calm, gentle figures who kept to themselves and were deeply devout.
  • (12) Billboards and placards sprang up around Egypt, showing him not in his familiar uniform but in a tracksuit, polo shirt or smart suit, with a discreet prayer bruise – a mark cultivated by some devout men by pressing their foreheads hard to the ground during prayer – calculated to set housewives’ hearts aflutter.
  • (13) A devout Christian and father of four, Jones, who marketed Google's services to prospective clients, said that tax officials had interviewed him and taken interest in his evidence.
  • (14) Religiosity is high among Egyptians of all political stripes – but many of the most devout wish the Brotherhood (as well as the ultra-orthodox Salafist groups to their right) would leave people to interpret religion in their own way.
  • (15) Still, in the eyes of many US Latinos, Pope Francis (or “Panchito” as one devout follower lovingly calls him ) is the real deal, and is having a decided effect.
  • (16) Devout Muslims consider it a sacrilege for infidels to depose a Muslim tyrant and occupy Muslim lands — no matter how well intentioned the infidels or malevolent the tyrant.
  • (17) But Kazan was a devout heterosexual, and a director of the new breed that needed to find himself in the work.
  • (18) At a gathering of potential voters in the small town of Northfield, Santorum barely mentioned his devout Catholic faith or the usual hot-button social conservative issues of gay marriage and abortion.
  • (19) In fact, he'd probably say something similar himself, seeing as he is – as you may have heard – a devout Scientologist and, as well as believing things such as that the only reason people follow any religions other than Scientology is because 75 billion years ago their souls were brainwashed after being forced to watch a "three-D, super colossal motion picture" for 36 days (and to be fair to Scientology, that does sound like my idea of hell), Scientologists claim that a person is not a person but, in fact, an extraterrestrial, or thetan.
  • (20) "As the Japan manager is a devout Unitarian I wondered if religious beliefs influence tatics," writes Ian Copestake.

Pious


Definition:

  • (a.) Of or pertaining to piety; exhibiting piety; reverential; dutiful; religious; devout; godly.
  • (a.) Practiced under the pretext of religion; prompted by mistaken piety; as, pious errors; pious frauds.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) © Focus Features Where Dolly, a kind, pious, modest, anxious figure, the mother of five living and two dead children, belongs very much to the old Russia, Stiva Oblonsky, her husband, is recognisable as the caricature of a modern man.
  • (2) It is of course important that migrants are not scapegoated; but such pious deceit from comfortable middle-class commentators can only provoke the unemployed, the low-paid and the homeless.
  • (3) Still, I like to believe that these small-scale ventures, too, make some contribution to a conversation without limits or proscriptions; the sine qua non of the sort of society that knows to keep the solemn and the pious at bay.
  • (4) Many Isis fighters are newly converted, newly pious ... these men have grown a beard in three months and they don’t give Islam time to be understood.” He is tired of having to defend his religion against bigots who take these instant Islamists to be the authentic representation of Islam.
  • (5) The president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, made it a vote about his “way”, and found himself rejected by a large group of “democrat” voters – and almost completely abandoned by his long-term allies: pious Kurds.
  • (6) In that same National season, he teamed with Simon Callow (as Face) and Josie Lawrence (as Doll Common) in a co-production by Bill Alexander for the Birmingham Rep of Ben Jonson’s trickstering, two-faced masterpiece The Alchemist ; he was a comically pious Subtle in sackcloth and sandals.
  • (7) Both harangued Brian from the outset calling it "a squalid little film" and "tenth rate"; no amount of measured argument on the Pythons part would dissuade the pious double act of their firmly held belief that Life of Brian mocked Christ.
  • (8) He's obviously a true believer in democracy – which sounds rather pious, but it's a fact.
  • (9) Tories are furious and bitter at being abandoned by the Lib Dems, whom they loathe anyway as a bunch of pious creeps.
  • (10) Those who claim that conversion or rejection of faith is punishable by death are effectively - and this ought to give their pious hearts pause for reflection - usurping powers reserved solely for God.
  • (11) Burns is, according to the poet Edwin Muir, "to the respectable, a decent man; to the Rabelaisian, bawdy; to the sentimentalist, sentimental; to the socialist, a revolutionary; to the nationalist, a patriot; to the religious, pious …" So no doubt, this January at the start of referendum year , even diehard unionists will be searching around for words of his that seem to support their position and, where they can extrapolate them, sprinkling them around with abandon to salt their haggis, neeps and tatties at Burns suppers the length and breadth of the land.
  • (12) We simply cannot wait in the pious hope that short-term-minded governments and enterprises will save us There is a clear answer to the question of each country’s reasonable share, based on a permissible quantum of emissions per capita that never threatens the perilous 2C mean temperature increase that would profoundly and irreversibly affect all life on earth.
  • (13) The reticent, pious, even priggish character was too alien, possibly repellant, for the writer and director of the 1999 film version, Patricia Rozema, who drew on Austen's letters to fabricate another creature altogether.
  • (14) Against this background it is very simple to make such pious and ill-considered statements as, “If they don’t want to go to jail, they shouldn’t break the law!” Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘We represent only 2.4% of the Australian population yet account for more than 25% of the prison population.’ Photograph: AAP Against this background, it is very simple to impose policies for Indigenous Australians that do not signal any sense of belief in our humanity and own capacity to rise above the challenges we are confronted by.
  • (15) What we have too in Sister Cristina is the singing nun as a cultural idea: the pious, virginal creature emerging from behind strict convent walls to charm the world with the power of her voice.
  • (16) Early speculation suggested the twice-divorced businessman – who once cited the verse “two Corinthians” rather than the correct “second Corinthians” during his campaign and said he had never sought forgiveness for his sins – could not capture the vote of the pious.
  • (17) Like The Guard, Calvary is tartly, tightly scripted; unlike it, it's a pious piece of work, a serious investigation of expiation.
  • (18) This pious art lover could have a career in slapstick if she wants, for her comic destruction of a work of art bears comparison with Rowan Atkinson giving Whistler's Mother a badly drawn cartoon face in the film Bean .
  • (19) Sometimes we are not quite sure that this way of life is pious enough.
  • (20) "I saw Jonathan, who comes over as a very nice, humble, pious person," said Selby.