Puritan
Anglican simplicity seeker
A Puritan was a member of the English Protestant movement in the 16th and 17th centuries that sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic practices.
Many Puritans emigrated to New England, where their strict religious values shaped early American culture.
The Puritans are remembered for emphasizing hard work, moral discipline, and suspicion of worldly pleasures—qualities that persist in stereotypes about American attitudes. (Lowercase puritan describes any person of rigid moral strictness.)
Plymouth's founding English colonists
- MassachusettsNortheastern colonial state
- CalvinismPredestinarian Protestant theology
- Mayflower1620 colonial transport vessel
- PlymouthEnglish port city
Cromwell · Reformation · Presbyterianism · Salem · theocracy · commonwealth · Roundheads · Geneva
Deep, loyal commitment
- faithTrust without proof
- holinessSacred spiritual purity
- godlinessState of spiritual purity
- righteousnessMoral correctness or virtue
prayer · worship · reverence · sanctity · devoutness · religiosity · zeal · piousness
Absence of carnal experience
- unblemishedFree from any defect
- immaculateCompletely without blemish
- undefiledFree from contamination
- plainnessUnadorned, straightforward quality
Pilgrims
Plymouth's founding English colonists
- MassachusettsNortheastern colonial state
- CalvinismPredestinarian Protestant theology
- Mayflower1620 colonial transport vessel
Plymouth · Cromwell · Reformation · Presbyterianism · Salem · theocracy · commonwealth · Roundheads · Geneva · Bradford
devotion
Deep, loyal commitment
righteousness · prayer · worship · reverence · sanctity · devoutness · religiosity · zeal · piousness · observance
virginity
Absence of carnal experience
- unblemishedFree from any defect
- immaculateCompletely without blemish
- undefiledFree from contamination
- religionChristianity, Islam, beliefs, Judaism, Hinduism
- believersbeliever, believers, adherent, devotee, theist
- ProtestantismLutheran, Protestantism, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian
- American ProtestantismBaptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopalian
- British ReligionAnglican, Church of Scotland, Archbishop of Canterbury, Canterbury Cathedral, Westminster Abbey
- Colonialcolonist, colony, settler, plantation, fort
Puritanlibertine
One lacking moral restraint
hedonist · sybarite · sensualist · debauchee · voluptuary
PuritanAnglican
Church of England member
Anglo-Catholic · Catholic · ritualist · Roman Catholic · papist
Puritanepicurean
Connoisseur of sensual pleasures
bon vivant · pleasure-seeker · party animal · playboy · rake
- purity testMeasuring adherence to standards
- moral purityUntainted ethical state
- water purityCleanliness of drinking supply
- purity ringAbstinence pledge jewelry
- purity of heartSincere, uncorrupted inner state
- ideological purityUncompromising commitment to doctrine