Sacred
adj, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 simple past and past participle of sacre form-of, participle, past
- 1 Characterized by solemn religious ceremony or religious use, especially, in a positive sense; consecrated, made holy.
"a sacred place"
- 2 Religious; relating to religion, or to the services of religion; not secular
"Smit with the love of sacred song."
- 3 Spiritual; concerned with metaphysics.
"Unlike most metaphysical or philosophical naturalists who reject any supernatural beings or supernatural/sacred entities, naturalists who take the concept of the sacred seriously must answer this question: “What is the value of the sacred with respect to nature?""
- 4 Designated or exalted by a divine sanction; possessing the highest title to obedience, honor, reverence, or veneration; entitled to extreme reverence; venerable.
"Such neighbor nearness to our sacred [royal] blood Should nothing privilege him."
- 5 Not to be profaned or violated; inviolable.
"Secrets of marriage still are sacred held."
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- 6 Consecrated; dedicated; devoted
"A temple, sacred to the queen of love."
- 7 Solemnly devoted, in a bad sense, as to evil, vengeance, curse, or the like; accursed; baleful. archaic
"But, to destruction sacred and devote."
- 1 (often followed by ‘to’) devoted exclusively to a single use or purpose or person wordnet
- 2 made or declared or believed to be holy; devoted to a deity or some religious ceremony or use wordnet
- 3 worthy of religious veneration wordnet
- 4 concerned with religion or religious purposes wordnet
- 5 worthy of respect or dedication wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"If anything is sacred the human body is sacred."
Etymology
From Middle English sacred, isacred, past participle of sacren, sakeren (“to make holy, hallow”), equivalent to sacre + -ed.
Related phrases
More for "sacred"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.