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
Griswold—whose father, once the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, consecrated the denomination’s first openly gay bishop—treats the pastors generously, though gingerly, constructing from their lowest moments an affecting study of sacred life in sacrilegious times.
—
Dan Piepenbring, Harper's Magazine, 2 Aug. 2024
The cartoon images deeply offended many Muslims, who saw them as sacrilegious.
—Tom Nouvian and Samuel Petrequin, Los Angeles Times, 20 Dec. 2024
This declaration should not be mistaken for vain clickbait or an attempt to be sacrilegious.
—Dr. Marcus Collins, Forbes, 12 Dec. 2024
Putting Vice and the Bard in the same sentence sounds sacrilegious, but the movie paints Lynne Cheney as a Lady MacBeth type and requires Adams to recite iambic pentameter about Dick’s capacity to usurp some of George W. Bush’s authority.
—Matthew Jacobs, Vulture, 6 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for sacrilegious
Dan Piepenbring, Harper's Magazine, 2 Aug. 2024
The cartoon images deeply offended many Muslims, who saw them as sacrilegious.
—Tom Nouvian and Samuel Petrequin, Los Angeles Times, 20 Dec. 2024
This declaration should not be mistaken for vain clickbait or an attempt to be sacrilegious.
—Dr. Marcus Collins, Forbes, 12 Dec. 2024
Putting Vice and the Bard in the same sentence sounds sacrilegious, but the movie paints Lynne Cheney as a Lady MacBeth type and requires Adams to recite iambic pentameter about Dick’s capacity to usurp some of George W. Bush’s authority.
—Matthew Jacobs, Vulture, 6 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for sacrilegious
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sacrilegious
Adjective
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Jones is 6'4, right handed, physical, and does all that on the worst team in the league, but Leafs fans act like paying him 9.5M is blasphemous.—
Kevin Papetti,
The Athletic,
23 Feb. 2025
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Many Muslims found some of the depictions offensive and even blasphemous.—
Lola Fadulu,
New York Times,
21 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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This game must have seemed profane to the Greeks, or even impious.—
Simone Weil,
Harper's Magazine,
2 July 2024
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Both narratives, private and public, differently restrict our access, so the ideal historian will need great tact and an impious curiosity.—
James Wood,
The New Yorker,
4 Sep. 2023
Adjective
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The inherent humor of Hollywood’s most coveted prize residing alongside everyday items has made this image a favorite of irreverent hotels and restaurants around the world.—
Scott Feinberg,
The Hollywood Reporter,
2 Mar. 2025
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Kieran Culkin’s good at being cocky and irreverent, and both of those characters have that.—
Nate Jones,
Vulture,
15 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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This expansion of cooperation in Israel’s energy security with Azerbaijan – a secular state with a Muslim Shi’a majority, builds on over thirty years of cordial relations and joint projects in defense, energy, culture, air transportation, and foreign policy.—
Wesley Alexander Hill,
Forbes,
8 Mar. 2025
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The book boldly subverts the standard view of Pakistani politics as a contest of dueling binaries, religious and secular, military and civilian.—
Foreign Affairs,
Foreign Affairs,
25 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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Allen's defense team aggressively pushed their theory that Odinists, members of a pagan Norse religion hijacked by white nationalists, killed the girls during a sacrificial ritual in the woods.—
Kristine Phillips,
The Indianapolis Star,
13 Nov. 2024
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There’s a lot of folklore, superstition and myth — pagan elements really, that are folded into how people actually practice religion in Ireland.—
Georg Szalai,
The Hollywood Reporter,
3 Sep. 2019
Cite this Entry
“Sacrilegious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sacrilegious. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
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