as in atheistical
not showing proper reverence for the holy or sacred
a sacrilegious, obscene joke—and told in church at that!
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Recent Examples of sacrilegious
Call me sacrilegious, but there’s one place that a King’s Hawaiian roll tastes even better than the altar rail, and that’s at the beach.
—
Betsy Cribb Watson, Southern Living, 30 May 2025
Alfie, who’s either being willfully obtuse or radically uncompromising, sees nothing sacrilegious in Wilde’s one-act tragedy.
—Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 21 May 2025
According to the first-century Jewish philosopher Philo and the historian Josephus, Pilate had his soldiers carry objects that honored Roman emperors into Jerusalem, which Jewish residents saw as sacrilegious.
—Nathanael Andrade, The Conversation, 11 Apr. 2025
The solution, too good to spoil here, involves a sacrilegious yet principled breach of a basic rule—and a tweak to a pitcher’s very identity.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 7 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sacrilegious
Betsy Cribb Watson, Southern Living, 30 May 2025
Alfie, who’s either being willfully obtuse or radically uncompromising, sees nothing sacrilegious in Wilde’s one-act tragedy.
—Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 21 May 2025
According to the first-century Jewish philosopher Philo and the historian Josephus, Pilate had his soldiers carry objects that honored Roman emperors into Jerusalem, which Jewish residents saw as sacrilegious.
—Nathanael Andrade, The Conversation, 11 Apr. 2025
The solution, too good to spoil here, involves a sacrilegious yet principled breach of a basic rule—and a tweak to a pitcher’s very identity.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 7 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sacrilegious
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sacrilegious
Adjective
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This may sound blasphemous for a Fixed Earth sign, but spontaneity works best sometimes.—
Valerie Mesa,
People.com,
23 Aug. 2025
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There was certainly a time when the notion of the Baltimore Orioles getting rid of Adley Rutschman would have been blasphemous.—
Jackson Roberts,
MSNBC Newsweek,
22 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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The only true dictionary is the lost one, the dictionary of the language that perished when the impious tower was built: the original language, God’s language.—
Mariana Dimópulos,
Harpers Magazine,
26 Mar. 2025
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This game must have seemed profane to the Greeks, or even impious.—
Simone Weil,
Harper's Magazine,
2 July 2024
Adjective
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The whole this is very slapstick and irreverent, and the story is advanced almost exclusively by wacky deus ex machinas.—
James Folta,
Literary Hub,
10 Sep. 2025
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Her voice in the essays is sly and irreverent, knowing and persuasive—all qualities that endeared her to readers, despite her often excessively Manichean tone.—
Anderson Tepper,
The Atlantic,
8 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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All of it has a deeper religious meaning, but is also intended to appeal to the secular and spiritual.—
Lauren Costantino,
Miami Herald,
10 Sep. 2025
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Conversely, several secular growth trends are also benefitting the stock, including increasing mobile app usage and the rise of connected TV advertising.—
Trefis Team,
Forbes.com,
10 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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These wooden churches were once common across the country, built when Christianity was still new and pagan traditions lingered.—
David Nikel,
Forbes.com,
25 Aug. 2025
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Previous defense motions have also claimed that German and Williams' murders were actually a ritual sacrifice committed by Odinists, members of a pagan religion linked with White nationalism, per CNN.—
Jordana Comiter,
People.com,
5 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Sacrilegious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sacrilegious. Accessed 11 Sep. 2025.
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