holy
Americanadjective
-
holier,
comparative
-
holiest
superlative
-
specially recognized as or declared sacred by religious use or authority; consecrated.
holy ground.
- Synonyms:
- blessed
-
dedicated or devoted to the service of God, the church, or religion.
a holy man.
-
saintly; godly; pious; devout.
a holy life.
-
having a spiritually pure quality.
a holy love.
- Synonyms:
- spiritual
-
entitled to worship or veneration as or as if sacred.
a holy relic.
-
holy rites.
-
inspiring fear, awe, or grave distress.
The director, when angry, is a holy terror.
-
(used in certain interjections to express surprise, bewilderment, or wonder, as in holy cow andholy smoke. )
noun
-
holies
plural
adjective
-
of, relating to, or associated with God or a deity; sacred
-
endowed or invested with extreme purity or sublimity
-
devout, godly, or virtuous
-
offensively sanctimonious or self-righteous
a holier-than-thou attitude
-
-
a difficult or frightening person
-
informal a person who is an active gambler, womanizer, etc
-
noun
Synonym Usage
Holy, sacred, consecrated, hallowed imply possession of a sanctity that is the object of religious veneration. Holy refers to the divine, that which has its sanctity directly from God or is connected with Him: Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Something that is sacred, while sometimes accepted as entitled to religious veneration, may have its sanctity from human authority: a sacred oath. Something that is consecrated is specially or formally dedicated to some religious use: a life consecrated to service. Something that is hallowed has been made holy by being worshiped: a hallowed shrine.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of holy
First recorded before 900; Middle English holi, Old English hālig, variant of hāleg, equivalent to hāl whole + -eg -y 1; cognate with Dutch, German heilig, Old Norse heilagr
Explanation
Something that is sacred can be described as holy, like the Holy Bible. So can anything associated with God, like a holy day that is observed by attending worship ceremonies. The adjective holy comes from the Old English word hālig and is related to the German word heilig, meaning “blessed.” There is a relationship between holy and whole, and the religious sense probably developed from keeping believers spiritually whole — and pure. A place, object, or person who has been blessed can be described as holy, meaning "associated with God."
Vocabulary lists containing holy
Abbey Road
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Eid al-Adha
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All Saints' Day
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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:
A surprisingly low interest rate is the holy grail, and they know it.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 19, 2026
That means Quantinuum has visibility to the quantum-computing industry’s holy grail: the threshold of “fault tolerance,” where quantum computers can function reliably and accurately despite the presence of errors, Hazra said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026
Bangladeshi authorities say they were not informed of the recent execution of two Bangladeshi nationals in the holy city of Mecca until after it had taken place, local media reports.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026
Attacks linked to Islam's holy cities, however, are rare.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
But at the wonder in the boy’s eyes she collected herself and asked him who he was, so young and yet seemingly so dedicated to this high service in Greece’s holy of holies.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
No one would call him a minimalist, but his holy of holies is not to allow his productions to eclipse his performers.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2025
Jerusalem was also the site of the holiest of holies of Judaism, the most sacred of spaces where the Temple of Solomon had stood until its destruction by the Romans.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
The country, he said, is facing “an attack on the holy of holies: the security of the State of Israel.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 2, 2023
Traditionally, most Orthodox Jews avoided the mount itself for fear of treading on the spot where the temples’ holy of holies once stood.
From New York Times ● Jul. 19, 2021
Though this proviso may sound far-fetched, Wagner’s admirers had indeed begun to see Bayreuth as a very special place, the holiest of holies, well before he embarked on Parsifal.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
“Rich people can get a private beach and others can’t…I don’t pretend to be holier than anybody, I just do have these feelings.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
“These are women who have traversed many things and are not holier than thou and are very, very loud,” she said.
From New York Times ● Apr. 24, 2023
It’s easy for strangers to be holier than thou if they haven’t tried to solve the problem themselves.
From Slate ● Mar. 6, 2023
"Every time we say, 'Well, I believe in the science,' I think we come off holier than thou," said Suzanne Shelton, CEO of the Shelton Group.
From Salon ● Jan. 30, 2021
“If God gets even half the promises we’ve been laying down, the U.S.A. is going to be holier than the Vatican,” Monaco said.
From "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers
Earlier, the Houthis denied that they had attacked Saudi Arabia on Thursday, after the coalition said its forces had intercepted a cruise missile in the Medina region, home to one of Islam's holiest shrines.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
Medina, the burial place of the Prophet Mohammed and home to the Prophet's Mosque, is one of Islam's holiest cities alongside Mecca.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
The 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation said attacks on Mecca and Medina province, where Islam's second holiest shrine is located, constituted an "unacceptable and intolerable transgression".
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
They are forbidden from contact with relatives and friends in Israel, and can’t visit the country, home to Judaism’s holiest sites.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
It was not the biggest church in Harlem, nor yet the smallest, but John had been brought up to believe it was the holiest and best.
From "Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
