holy writ
noun
Herbert Stein
Did you know?
Holy Writ has been used in English as a synonym for Bible for more than a thousand years. The term traces to the Venerable Bede, an 8th-century Anglo-Saxon scholar, historian, and theologian who wrote a history of England in which he dated events from the birth of Christ. Bede's history was translated from Latin to English around the year 900, and it is in that translated text that we find the earliest evidence for holy writ. William Shakespeare used holy writ in Othello: "Trifles light as air are to the jealous confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ." And Alexander Pope used it in his Wife of Bath: "And close the sermon, as beseem'd his wit, with some grave sentence out of holy writ."
Examples of holy writ in a Sentence
Robert Eggers, HollywoodReporter, 17 Oct. 2025
Drawing on existing holy writ was in no way scandalous.
—Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 1 Apr. 2025
Fortunately, Marvel Studios has always treated its comic books as inspiration rather than holy writ, so Schaeffer felt at liberty to simplify Billy’s origins as needed.
—Adam B. Vary, Variety, 18 Oct. 2024
After years of hints and rumors of a sequel to 2014’s celebrated Black Metal, fans pored over its sequel like holy writ to glean priceless scraps of insight into Blunt’s evolution.
—Pitchfork, 1 Oct. 2024
Putting aside holy writ, Greek and Roman classical writers were going to be the ones with a direct line to wisdom and truth.
—Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2024
Neither did another aspect to Utah’s defeat — and an additional cardinal sin in Whittingham’s holy writ of football: giving up huge chunks of yardage by way of an inability to stop the run.
—Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 9 Oct. 2022
Pundits have latched onto these voter surveys, treating them as holy writ.
—Jeff Scrima, WSJ, 12 Oct. 2020
Cite this Entry
“Holy writ.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/holy%20writ. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
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