The definition of prigs is the plural form of prig, a noun for a person who is excessively concerned with being proper, moral, or correct, often in a self-righteous way that annoys other people. If you look up the definition of prigs, dictionaries describe people who make a show of their virtue, judge others harshly for small faults, and treat rules and manners as more important than kindness or common sense. The word is old-fashioned and mildly insulting, so it appears more often in novels, essays, and humorous writing than in polite everyday conversation, but it is still useful for describing a very recognisable type of character.
Definition of Prigs in Plain English
In plain English, the definition of prigs comes down to this: prigs are people who act superior about morals and manners and who enjoy pointing out that others fall short. A prig might lecture friends about table manners, correct strangers about small mistakes, or refuse to enjoy a harmless joke because it offends their strict sense of propriety. The behaviour is not simply being polite or principled, which are good qualities, but being rigid, humourless, and eager to judge, so that the moral stance becomes a performance rather than a quiet personal standard.
The word carries a tone of mockery, and writers use it to signal that the character’s virtue is more about appearance than about genuine goodness. A truly kind person may hold strong principles without making others feel small, while a prig uses principles as a weapon in conversation. That distinction matters for readers, because calling someone a prig is a criticism of attitude and tone, not a claim that caring about right and wrong is bad in itself. Context, as always, decides whether the label fits or whether it is simply unfair name-calling.
Origin and History of the Word Prig
Prig has been in English for several centuries, and its older senses included a thief or a conceited person before it settled into the modern sense of a self-righteous moralist. The word became popular in eighteenth and nineteenth century literature, where authors used prigs as comic figures who clashed with freer, warmer characters. That literary history is why the word still feels slightly old-fashioned today, and why it works well in book reviews and character descriptions even when people rarely say it aloud in modern speech.
Definition of Prigs and How the Word Is Used
Grammatically, prig is a countable noun, and prigs is its regular plural, so you can say a prig for one person and prigs for a group. The word is almost always used critically, and it often appears with adjectives such as smug, humourless, sanctimonious, or narrow-minded, which sharpen the insult. You might read that a committee of prigs banned a book, or that the novel’s prigs are shocked by a harmless romance, and in both cases the writer expects the reader to side against the prigs rather than admire them. Because the word is insulting, it is best used about fictional characters or in clearly humorous writing rather than aimed at real people in a serious discussion.
Prig also has a related adjective form in some dictionaries, priggish, which means behaving like a prig, and a noun form, priggishness, for the quality itself. These forms let writers describe behaviour without naming a person directly, as in priggish attitudes or the priggishness of the school rules. Learners should note that prig is not a formal term in psychology or ethics, but a piece of everyday and literary vocabulary for social criticism, closer to snob or killjoy than to a technical label. For similar word-meaning explainers, see this guide to the meaning of animosity and this explainer on the meaning of aversion.
| Word | Meaning | Tone |
|---|---|---|
| Prig | A self-righteous, overly proper person | Critical, mocking |
| Prigs | More than one such person | Critical, mocking |
| Priggish | Behaving like a prig | Critical |
| Sanctimonious | Making a show of being morally superior | Strongly critical |
| Principled | Holding firm moral standards quietly | Positive, neutral |
Prigs in Literature and Everyday Examples
Literature is full of prigs because they make excellent comic obstacles. A prig in a novel might object to dancing, to colourful clothing, or to a character speaking plainly, and the humour comes from the gap between the prig’s horror and the reader’s sense that nothing truly harmful has happened. Authors often pair a prig with a warm, generous character so that the contrast shows up the prig’s coldness, and the reader learns to value kindness over rule-following. In everyday life, the same pattern appears in milder form whenever someone turns a small social slip into a moral lecture.
It is worth distinguishing a prig from a person who simply disagrees with you. Someone who politely declines an activity for personal reasons is not a prig, and someone who raises a genuine concern about safety or fairness is not a prig either. The prig label fits when the objection is petty, the tone is superior, and the main pleasure seems to come from judging rather than helping. Keeping that test in mind prevents the word from becoming a lazy insult for anyone with standards different from your own, which is a common misuse in heated online arguments.
Synonyms and Near Words
Close synonyms include prude, for someone excessively concerned with modesty, and goody-goody, a more childish term for someone who flaunts good behaviour. Sanctimonious and holier-than-thou describe the same superior attitude in adjective form, while snob adds an element of social class or taste. None of these words is a perfect match, because prig combines moral strictness with social judgement in a particular way, but together they give writers a range of tones from gentle teasing to sharp criticism.
Using Prigs Correctly in Sentences
Here are natural examples that show the plural in action. The two prigs in the story spend the whole party correcting other guests. A room full of prigs would find fault with any celebration. Critics called the new rules priggish, but most readers simply ignored them. Notice that prigs works as the subject of a sentence, as the object of a preposition, and in descriptions of groups, just like any regular plural noun. The word does not take a verb form in modern English, so you would not say someone prigs, and you would not use it as an adjective without switching to priggish.
In formal writing, use prig sparingly and explain what you mean, because some readers may not know the word or may find it dated. A sentence such as The committee, a group of prigs in the novelist’s telling, banned the play works better than using the word without context, because the surrounding detail shows the behaviour you are criticising. In casual writing and book reviews, the word can stand alone, since the tone is lighter and the reader expects colourful character labels. Either way, the safest habit is to describe the behaviour first and let the label follow as a summary.
FAQs: Definition of Prigs
What is the singular of prigs?
The singular is prig, meaning one self-righteous, excessively proper person. Prigs is simply the plural, used for two or more such people.
Is prig a rude word?
It is mildly insulting and mocking, but not a strong swear word. It is best used about fictional characters or in humorous writing rather than directed at real people in serious conversation.
How is a prig different from a prude?
A prude is mainly concerned with modesty and shocked by anything risqué, while a prig is concerned more broadly with morals, manners, and correctness, and enjoys judging others. The two overlap, but prig is the wider term.
Definition of Prigs in Modern Use
Modern writers still reach for the definition of prigs when they need a short, vivid label for a group that polices manners more eagerly than it practises kindness. A reviewer might write that the definition of prigs fits the novel’s committee perfectly, because the members ban harmless pleasures while ignoring real harm, and readers instantly understand the joke. The word survives precisely because no modern synonym captures the same mix of moral strictness, social judgement, and comic self-importance in a single syllable pair. When you use it, pair it with a concrete example of the behaviour, so the reader sees why the label fits rather than simply taking your word for it.
Teachers and editors sometimes warn that the definition of prigs can sound dated to younger readers, who may know prude or snob better than prig. That is fair advice, but it does not make the word useless: a brief gloss on first use solves the problem, as in the prigs, those self-righteous guardians of propriety, objected to the dance. Used that way, the definition of prigs becomes part of the sentence itself, teaching the word while using it, which is exactly how vocabulary grows in reading. Keep the word for character writing, humour, and literary discussion, and choose a plainer term when you need a serious, neutral description of someone with strict principles.
Definition of Prigs: A Quick Check
Use this quick check for the definition of prigs: does the person judge small faults with superior delight, and does the definition of prigs fit better than a neutral word like principled? If the behaviour is rigid, humourless, and performed for effect, the definition of prigs fits well, and if the person is simply quiet about strong beliefs, it does not. That test keeps the definition of prigs accurate and fair.
Conclusion: Definition of Prigs
To close, the definition of prigs is straightforward once the tone is clear: prigs are people who turn properness into a performance, judge others harshly for small faults, and value rules over kindness. The word is old-fashioned, literary, and mildly insulting, and it works best when the behaviour is described as well as named. Used with that care, it remains a vivid piece of English vocabulary for a character type readers recognise instantly.
