holier; holiest
1
: exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness
2
: divine
for the Lord our God is holy—
Psalms 99:9 (King James Version)
Psalms 99:9 (King James Version)3
: devoted entirely to the deity or the work of the deity
a holy temple
holy prophets
4
a
: having a divine quality
holy love
b
: venerated as or as if sacred
holy scripture
a holy relic
5
—used as an intensive
this is a holy mess
he was a holy terror when he drank—Thomas Wolfe
—often used in combination as a mild oathThomas Wolfeholy smoke
Examples of holy in a Sentence
a holy relic worn by one of the saints
the holy monk spent many hours on his knees in prayer
Recent Examples on the Web
In 2016, at least $4,000 in cash donations were stolen from the ICM after the mosque's celebration of Eid al-Fitr, a holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
—Angele Latham, Nashville Tennessean, 26 Sep. 2025
Wahlberg plays a holy fool in Boogie Nights, our naïve but well-endowed guide through the heyday of theatrical pornography and its decline into something cheaper and tawdrier courtesy of the triumph of VHS.
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 25 Sep. 2025
Carlson's speech came less than a day before Rosh Hashanah, regarded as the Jewish New Year and one of the holiest of days for the Jewish people.
—Jose R. Gonzalez, AZCentral.com, 23 Sep. 2025
That’s the holy trinity of the liberal tradition.
—Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 23 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for holy
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Angele Latham, Nashville Tennessean, 26 Sep. 2025
Wahlberg plays a holy fool in Boogie Nights, our naïve but well-endowed guide through the heyday of theatrical pornography and its decline into something cheaper and tawdrier courtesy of the triumph of VHS.
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 25 Sep. 2025
Carlson's speech came less than a day before Rosh Hashanah, regarded as the Jewish New Year and one of the holiest of days for the Jewish people.
—Jose R. Gonzalez, AZCentral.com, 23 Sep. 2025
That’s the holy trinity of the liberal tradition.
—Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 23 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for holy
Cite this Entry
“Holy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/holy. Accessed 28 Sep. 2025.
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