sacrilegious

adjective

sac·​ri·​le·​gious ˌsa-krə-ˈli-jəs 

also

-ˈlē- 

: committing or characterized by sacrilege : having or showing a lack of proper respect for a sacred person, place, or object

sacrilegious acts

It is difficult for religiously committed persons to acknowledge that their sacred texts are prone to sacrilegious uses.

—Mary C. Boys

—often used in an exaggerated way in contexts unrelated to religion

It would be sacrilegious to cut down such beautiful trees.

Chilling your red wines may seem sacrilegious to some, and downright odd to others.

—Tess Rose Lampert

sacrilegiously adverb

In the center of the rich red carpet was a black and gold Louis Quinze table, a lovely antique, now sacrilegiously desecrated with marks of glasses and the scars of cigar-stumps.

—Arthur Conan Doyle

sacrilegiousness noun

… these examples of … insensitivity to (if not sacrilegiousness or profanation of) the deeply held beliefs of some 200 million-plus Americans.

—Quin Hilyer

Synonyms

• blasphemous
• impious
• irreverent
• profane

Examples of sacrilegious in a Sentence

a sacrilegious, obscene joke—and told in church at that!

Recent Examples on the Web

Drinking a Bloody Mary at night just feels wrong and confusing, sacrilegious even, which is hilarious because everything else goes. —Jeremy Repanich, Robb Report, 7 Feb. 2025

Loading your audio article SAN FRANCISCO — NBA commissioner Adam Silver understandably defended mounting criticism of the 3-point shot, and saying anything else would have been sacrilegious in the house Steph Curry built with his unparalleled 3-point prowess. —Cam Inman, The Mercury News, 15 Feb. 2025

Some fans will think supporting two different teams, let alone rivals, is sacrilegious. —Charlotte Harpur, The Athletic, 19 Jan. 2025

But the French debate over whether to show images of Muhammad, which many Muslims view as sacrilegious, is still being waged today. —Colette Davidson, The Christian Science Monitor, 8 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1582, in the meaning defined above

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