sanctity
Americannoun
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holiness, saintliness, or godliness.
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sacred or hallowed character.
the inviolable sanctity of the temple.
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a sacred thing.
noun
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the condition of being sanctified; holiness
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anything regarded as sanctified or holy
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the condition of being inviolable; sacredness
the sanctity of marriage
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of sanctity
1350–1400; < Latin sānctitās holiness, equivalent to sānct- ( see Sanctus) + -itās -ity; replacing Middle English sauntite < Anglo-French < Latin, as above
Explanation
Sanctity describes something that is holy, like the sanctity of religious objects to believers. Sanctity goes back to the Latin root sanctus, meaning "holy" or "sacred." A synonym for sanctity is godliness and most religions describe God as completely holy. Sanctity also can describe sacred obligation or rights — you may have heard of the sanctity of marriage, meaning the value and respect society shows to married people.
Vocabulary lists containing sanctity
"Nature" by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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This Week in Pop Culture: April 6–12, 2019
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The Handmaid's Tale
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
