reverential

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɹɛvəˈɹɛnʃəl/

Adjective

reverential (comparative more reverential, superlative most reverential)

1. Showing or characterized by reverence; respectful.

   Synonym: reverent

   Antonym: irreverential

   • 1867, Edward William Cox, The Arts of Writing, Reading and Speaking, page 155:

     The supposed religious tone must be banished, so far as it is applied to the book itself or to the words printed in it; but there is a reverential tone, properly applicable to the meaning conveyed by the words, which should be cultivated.

   • 2012, Jill Dolan, The Feminist Spectator as Critic, University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 94:

     The reverential tone intensified as this section progressed. When each spectator had purportedly become her mother, she was invited to share her mother's wisdom, prefaced by the words "I always said."

Derived terms

• irreverential
• reverentially
• reverentialness

Anagrams

• interleaver