Holiness

//ˈhoʊlinəs// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state or condition of being holy. countable, uncountable

    "R. Moskowitz charges cisgender readers to be as conscious and deliberate with our religious identities as transgender and gender non-conforming people are with theirs, arguing that holiness is only achieved through continuous and unrelenting struggle and change."

  2. 2
    Used in connection with His or Your to address the leader of some religious traditions, notably the pope. countable

    "Your Holiness"

  3. 3
    the quality of being holy wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
sacrednesssanctitysanctityangelicalnessawesomenessawfulness

Example

More examples

"You're mistaken. With all due respect, Your Holiness is mistaken. Christ didn't come here with Columbus. It was the Antichrist who came. The indigenous holocaust was worse than the Holocaust of WWII, not even the pope can deny that."

Etymology

From Middle English holynesse, holinesse, halinesse, from Old English hāliġnes (“holiness, a holy thing, rites”), from Proto-West Germanic *hailagnassī, equivalent to holy + -ness. Cognate with West Frisian hilligens (“holiness”), Old High German heilagnissi, heilīgnissi (“holiness”), whence Middle High German heilignis (“halidom”).

Related phrases

His HolinessTheir HolinessesYour Holinessholiness movement

More for "holiness"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.