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 religionMary C. BoysIt 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
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
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
Quin Hilyer
Examples of sacrilegious in a Sentence
a sacrilegious, obscene joke—and told in church at that!
Recent Examples on the Web
The annual solstice party seemed somehow sacrilegious in light of Millstone Hill’s history as a worksite, where men had scrambled up and down ladders, their bodies sometimes maimed and made smaller under the weight of falling rock.
—Ellyn Gaydos, Harper's Magazine, 25 June 2024
To the rabbis, seeking a return to Zion on a human, rather than a heavenly, timetable seemed almost sacrilegious.
—Elliott Abrams, Foreign Affairs, 1 July 2011
Some places offer the option of adding cheese, but any true Chicagoan knows that doing so is sacrilegious.
—Aaron Hutcherson, Washington Post, 25 June 2024
Boiling Donnie Yen down to one film, boiling the Ip Man series down to one film, even, might seem sacrilegious.
—Vikram Murthi, Vulture, 4 Mar. 2024
See all Example Sentences for sacrilegious 
Ellyn Gaydos, Harper's Magazine, 25 June 2024
To the rabbis, seeking a return to Zion on a human, rather than a heavenly, timetable seemed almost sacrilegious.
—Elliott Abrams, Foreign Affairs, 1 July 2011
Some places offer the option of adding cheese, but any true Chicagoan knows that doing so is sacrilegious.
—Aaron Hutcherson, Washington Post, 25 June 2024
Boiling Donnie Yen down to one film, boiling the Ip Man series down to one film, even, might seem sacrilegious.
—Vikram Murthi, Vulture, 4 Mar. 2024
See all Example Sentences for sacrilegious
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sacrilegious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near sacrilegious
Cite this Entry
“Sacrilegious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sacrilegious. Accessed 27 Jul. 2024.
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