Sacrilege

//ˈsækɹɪlɪd͡ʒ// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Desecration, profanation, misuse or violation of something regarded as sacred. uncountable, usually

    "I recall the height of comfort attained by the green-cushioned "first" with starched white antimacassars and a pretentious grey floor mat on which it seemed a sacrilege to stand, as it was embellished with the North Western conception of Britannia, complete with trident."

  2. 2
    blasphemous behavior; the act of depriving something of its sacred character wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
blasphemydesecrationprofanationprofanationabominationabuse

Example

More examples

"Some people have compared Esperantism to a cult, but soon there will come a time when Zamenhof returns and punishes them for this sacrilege."

Etymology

Circa 1300, original sense “stealing something sacred”. From Middle English sacrilege, from Old French sacrilege, from Latin sacrilegium, from sacrilegus (“sacrilegious”). Sense of “profanation” from late 14th century.

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