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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Impiousness

Impious \Im"pi*ous\, a. [L. impius; pref. im- not + pius piou. See Pious.] Not pious; wanting piety; irreligious; irreverent; ungodly; profane; wanting in reverence for the Supreme Being; as, an impious deed; impious language.

When vice prevails, and impious men bear away, The post of honor is a private station.
--Addison.

Syn: Impious, Irreligious, Profane.

Usage: Irreligious is negative, impious and profane are positive. An indifferent man may be irreligious; a profane man is irreverent in speech and conduct; an impious man is wickedly and boldly defiant in the strongest sense. Profane also has the milder sense of secular.
--C. J. Smith. -- Im"pi*ous*ly, adv. -- Im"pi*ous*ness, n.

Wiktionary
impiousness

n. quality#English of being impious.

WordNet
impiousness

n. unrighteousness by virtue of lacking respect for a god [syn: impiety] [ant: piety]

Usage examples of "impiousness".

Not only that, but the subtle insanity of Ahab respecting Moby Dick was noways more significantly manifested than in his superlative sense and shrewdness in foreseeing that, for the present, the hunt should in some way be stripped of that strange imaginative impiousness which naturally invested it.