Equally pious, almost (2,4,2)
I believe the answer is:
as good as
'almost' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'equally pious' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'equally' could be 'as' (synonyms) and 'as' is found within the answer.
'pious' could be 'good' (I've seen this before) and 'good' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'as' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for as good as that I've seen before include "Matching" , "Practically" , "Virtually" , "Very nearly" , "of the same standard" .)