sacrosanct

adjective sac·ro·sanct \ ˈsa-krō-ˌsaŋ(k)t \

|Updated on: 10 Jul 2018

Examples: sacrosanct in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

1 : most sacred or holy : inviolable

2 : treated as if holy : immune from criticism or violation

politically sacrosanct programs

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sacrosanctity

play \ˌsa-krō-ˈsaŋ(k)-tə-tē\ noun

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Examples of sacrosanct in a Sentence

the government's most sacrosanct institutions
The tradition is regarded as sacrosanct.

Recent Examples of sacrosanct from the Web

But the right to represent oneself is equally sacrosanct, said Atlanta defense attorney Don Samuel, who’s authored books on criminal case law.

— bill rankin, ajc, "Her life on the line, Gwinnett woman shuns lawyers in death-penalty case," 28 June 2018
Since only 132 days remain until the 2018 midterms, under the McConnell Standard, good-faith adherence to sacrosanct institutional norms would require the president and the Senate to put the process on hold until January.

— jay willis, GQ, "Why Justice Kennedy’s Retirement Is Even Worse Than You Think," 27 June 2018
In a profession where personal integrity is sacrosanct, forcing people to publicly deny their own identity could lead only to trouble.

— garrett m. graff, WIRED, "How a Former US Spy Chief Became Trump’s Fiercest Critic," 30 May 2018
On Friday, the sports world is treating Casey’s win as sacrosanct and something that should have given him immunity from firing.

— chris chase, For The Win, "Dwane Casey and the 10 other best coaches to be fired," 11 May 2018
Establishing peace and denuclearizing the peninsula won’t come easy after seven decades of hostilities, to say nothing of the much loftier aim: reunification. Reunification has long been the ultimate – even sacrosanct – goal of both Koreas.

— michael holtz, The Christian Science Monitor, "Reunification? Many young South Koreans say, 'Let's not.'," 3 May 2018
Airport airspace is considered Class B, a sacrosanct category that requires aircraft to have transponders, pilots licensed to travel there, and radios that are in contact with an airport's ATC tower.

— joe pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, "Dallas Flyers Club: What Uber's Flying Taxi Future Feels Like," 2 May 2018
Well, conversations between a doctor and a patient, the lawyer-client privilege is as sacrosanct as that, and there has to be a very, very good reason before any prosecutor should have a right to look at any research material.

— Fox News, "Alan Dershowitz on White House dinner, Cohen raid," 10 Apr. 2018
Norms and expectations that were once considered sacrosanct have dissolved like tissue paper, one after the other.

— david roberts, Vox, "The choice for Never Trumpers is obvious, but not easy," 24 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sacrosanct.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

That which is sacrosanct is doubly sacred: the two Latin components underlying the word, "sacro" and "sanctus," were combined long ago to form a phrase meaning "hallowed by a sacred rite." Sacro means "by a sacred rite" and comes from "sacrum," a Latin noun that lives on in English anatomy as the name for our pelvic vertebrae-a shortening of "os sacrum," which literally means "holy bone." Sanctus means "sacred" and gave us "saint" and obvious words like "sanctimony," "sanctify," and "sanctuary."