sin
noun
transgression of divine law.
sin
1 American
[sin]
/ sɪn /
noun
-
transgression of divine law.
the sin of Adam.
-
any act regarded as such a transgression, especially a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle.
- Synonyms:
- wickedness, wrong
-
any reprehensible or regrettable action, behavior, lapse, etc.; great fault or offense.
It's a sin to waste time.
verb (used without object)
-
sins,
present (3rd person singular)
-
sinned,
past participle, past
-
sinning
present participle
-
to commit a sinful act.
- Synonyms:
- trespass, transgress
-
to offend against a principle, standard, etc.
verb (used with object)
-
sins,
present (3rd person singular)
-
sinned,
past participle, past
-
sinning
present participle
-
to commit or perform sinfully.
He sinned his crimes without compunction.
-
to bring, drive, etc., by sinning.
He sinned his soul to perdition.
sin
2
American
[seen]
/ sin /
noun
-
the 22nd letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
-
the consonant sound represented by this letter.
sin
3
American
abbreviation
Trigonometry.
sīn
4
American
[seen]
/ sin /
noun
Sin
5
American
[seen]
/ sin /
noun
sin
1
British
/ sɪn /
noun
-
theol
-
transgression of God's known will or any principle or law regarded as embodying this
-
the condition of estrangement from God arising from such transgression See also actual sin mortal sin original sin venial sin
-
-
any serious offence, as against a religious or moral principle
-
any offence against a principle or standard
-
informal (of an unmarried couple) to live together
verb
-
theol to commit a sin
-
(usually foll by against) to commit an offence (against a person, principle, etc)
SIN
2
British
abbreviation
sin
3
British
/ siːn /
noun
sin
4
British
/ sɪn /
preposition
sin
5
British
/ saɪn /
abbreviation
sin
Scientific
sin
Idioms
Synonym Usage
See crime.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
sinsimple
-
sinssimple
-
have sinnedperfect
-
has sinnedperfect
-
am sinningprogressive
-
are sinningprogressive
-
is sinningprogressive
-
have been sinningperfect progressive
-
has been sinningperfect progressive
Past
-
sinnedsimple
-
had sinnedperfect
-
was sinningprogressive
-
were sinningprogressive
-
had been sinningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sin1
First recorded before 900; Middle English noun sinne, sin(e), sen(ne), Old English syn(n) “moral or religious offense, misdeed”; akin to German Sünde, Old Norse synd, Latin sōns (inflectional stem sont- ) “guilty,” literally “that man being the one”; the verb is derivative of the noun; the Germanic and Latin forms all being present participle forms of the root es- “to be”; see origin at am ( def. )
Origin of sin2
First recorded in 1895–1900; from Hebrew śīn
Origin of sīn4
From Arabic
Explanation
You might not want to be the one at the party who takes the last piece of cake, but then again, it would be a sin to let it sit there, uneaten. A sin is a deeply regrettable action. The most common definition of sin is religious: it's an immoral act against God or divine law. Any serious offense, even if it's not religious, can be called a sin, and so can something less serious if you're talking about it in a joking way, as in, "You've got to buy those shoes — it would be an absolute sin not to." In math, sin is the abbreviation of sine, the trigonometric function.
Vocabulary lists containing sin
"We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks
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"The New England Primer"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Scriptures demanded grappling with human nature, sin and salvation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Before we started calling one another “performative,” Tucker, Brownstein and Phair came from a time when “poser” was the worst insult and sin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
It isn’t the sin that makes Rowan erupt but Olivia’s failure to live by the most important lesson he’s ever imparted.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026
Vanity for them was no sin but a way of life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Perhaps this was the one sin that he couldn’t bear to admit.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Sī koment underwīlen her die baȥ dā heime möhten sīn.
From A Middle High German Primer Third Edition by Joseph Wright
I, sink, 76. sigenunft, sf. victory. sīhte, aj. shallow. silber, sn. silver. sim = si im. sin, sm. sense, mind, feeling; courage. sīn, pr. his; sīn sëlbes, of himself, 5, 11, 67.
From A Middle High German Primer Third Edition by Joseph Wright
Sigvaldi jarl lēt skotta við sīn skip, ok lagði ekki til orrostu.
From Icelandic Primer with Grammar, Notes and Glossary by Henry Sweet
En er hǫfðingjar rœddu þetta milli sīn, sem nū er sagt, þā sā þeir, hvar sigldu þrjū skip all-mikil, ok fjōrða sīðast, ok var þat Ormrinn langi.
From Icelandic Primer with Grammar, Notes and Glossary by Henry Sweet
Dō brāhte man die vrouwen dā si in ligen vant. si huop sīn schœne houbet mit ir vil wīȥen hant; dō kuste s’ alsō tōten den edelen ritter guot.
From A Middle High German Primer Third Edition by Joseph Wright
Russell T. Davies, the Swansea-born writer behind shows including Doctor Who and Channel 4's It's a Sin, also said online that he "can't wait".
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
Sin City used to have lots of cheap, all-you-can-eat restaurants that lost money but brought people in the door to gamble.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
For Flores, the EDM-fused, echoing melody “Mejor Sin Ti,” struck a personal chord; could a relationship be the only thing standing in your way to personal success?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
Chris Lewa believes all this suggests that the boats capsized, one several hours after leaving Sin Tet Maw, the other after several days of sailing south east.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
The second night he preached, his topic was The Wages of Sin.
From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee
Pura Casilla, the governor of San Cristobal province, told Noticias SIN that the explosion occurred in a commercial area and greatly affected businesses near the town center.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 15, 2023
The description for the folder Correspondence SIN reads:
From The Guardian ● Mar. 23, 2017
These may be labeled, for example, SIN , ARCSIN, or ASIN.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 13, 2015
Ms. Martin’s two-year-old fitness-concierge business, SIN Workouts, recommends and books group fitness classes such as SoulCycle for clients.
From New York Times ● Dec. 17, 2014
It seems to me that it may properly be called, A NEW "VISION OF SIN" In the winter of 1850 I was a member of one of the leading colleges of this country.
From Backlog Studies by Charles Dudley Warner
But while your brother’s lack of money management appears to have led your mother to make this gesture, it’s also important not to punish his children for the sins of their father.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026
“Through such an admission man looks squarely at the sins he is guilty of,” reads the catechism of the Catholic Church.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
“The beauty of this narrative was that it not only absolved Jefferson and his fellow slaveholders of their sins; it absolved America as a whole,” Mr. Rasenberger writes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
Now as a bishop, with a Church commitment to tangibly repent for its past sins, she felt the institution was starting to better represent the Church her mother and many others had stayed loyal to.
From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2026
She told Daddy all my sins and started to cry, which made me cry too, and I already had such an awful headache.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
He continued, "I guess as the famous saying goes, 'democracy dies in discussion . . .' But look, I have sinned against you. I'm sorry," he said unseriously in a Southern accent.
From Salon ● Feb. 20, 2024
After listing all those for whom she writes — “for the sinned against and the sanctifying” — Perry called for unity in difficult times:
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 17, 2022
Even if your daughters are, in some sense, more sinned against than sinning, you could reasonably worry that putting resources in their hands will allow them to support destructive causes.
From New York Times ● Mar. 1, 2022
“I have sinned, I’ve broken the law and I have no excuses,” Kreuper said via teleconference.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 7, 2022
Yes, he had sinned, and his father was looking for him.
From "Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin
Crusaders came to expect standard privileges like the indulgence, a means to reduce the penance owed for sinning by giving money directly to the church or paying for masses or other clerical services.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
He insists he is a man more sinned against than sinning and is working with lawyers to clear his name.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2021
And as he tells The Envelope, he’s not interested in examining or lingering on his past roles, but he does have a lot to say about religion, taking things seriously, and sinning with bread.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2020
Antony Sher plays the man more sinned against than sinning when the Royal Shakespeare Company brings this tragedy to Brooklyn.
From New York Times ● Apr. 5, 2018
She told me about Hell and sinning and how we go to church to learn how to live in God’s image.
From "P.S. I Miss You" by Jen Petro-Roy
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.
