Profanation

noun

noun ·4 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of profaning; desecration, blasphemous behaviour, defilement. countable, uncountable

    "those which mocke and condemne it, intend neverthelesse to wrong this noble vertue; but onely to condemne the abuse and profanation of so sacred a title[…]."

  2. 2
    degradation of something worthy of respect; cheapening wordnet
  3. 3
    blasphemous behavior; the act of depriving something of its sacred character wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
blasphemydesecrationsacrilegeabasementabominationabuse

Example

More examples

"In memory of his Naiad, he had previously ornamented the fountain in which she appeared to reside, and secured its waters from profanation or pollution by the small vaulted building of which the fragments still remained scattered around it."

Etymology

From Middle French prophanation, profanation, and its source, Late Latin profanatio, from the participle stem of Latin profānō.

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