Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

offensive to pious ears

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.25 in modern English

Syllables: of-fen-sive -to -pi-ous ears
IPA

31

Scrabble Score

20

Letters

6

Syllables

12

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Describing a doctrine or proposition that is not heretical, but formulated improperly or ambiguously and hence liable to cause scandal. A formal censure.

Example Sentences

"And Bishop Ullathorne concluded by condemning the journal as “containing propositions which are respectively subversive of the faith, heretical, approaching to heresy, erroneous, derogatory to the teaching of the Church, and offensive to pious ears.”"
"It is therefore impossible from Exsurge Domine alone to determine whether proposition 36 is condemned as heretical or merely as “offensive to pious ears.”"
"An investigatory commission in Oxford in 1378 declared that some of Wycliffe’s criticism were not incorrect in se but could be offensive to pious ears."

Etymology

Calque of Ecclesiastical Latin piārum aurium offēnsīvus.

Questions

What does offensive to pious ears mean?: Describing a doctrine or proposition that is not heretical, but formulated improperly or ambiguously and hence liable to cause scandal. A formal censure.
Where does offensive to pious ears come from?: Calque of Ecclesiastical Latin piārum aurium offēnsīvus.

How to pronounce offensive to pious ears

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