sacrilege means desecration, profanation, misuse or violation of something regarded as sacred. It carries an Arena rating of 1876, earned across 24 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, sacrilege ranks #805 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #919 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #959 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #1,161 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
sacrilege is pronounced /ˈsækɹɪlɪd͡ʒ/.
Why “sacrilege” is a great word
The violation or profanation of something held to be inviolably sacred. From Middle English sacrilege, from Old French sacrilege, from Latin sacrilegium ("temple robbery, theft of sacred things"), from sacrilegus ("sacrilegious"), from sacer ("sacred") + legere ("to gather, steal"); first attested circa 1300 in the sense of stealing something sacred. Unlike "blasphemy," which is speech against the divine, or "reverence," its pious opposite, sacrilege is a physical and metaphysical trespass. It is the smashed altar, the looted tomb, the holy text used to light a common fire—a chill that echoes in the hollow it leaves behind, a reminder that what we hold most dear is only ever a breath away from becoming mere material.
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.
noun
- Desecration, profanation, misuse or violation of something regarded as sacred.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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