profane
Americanadjective
-
characterized by irreverence or contempt for God or sacred principles or things; irreligious.
- Synonyms:
- ungodly, impious, sacrilegious, blasphemous
- Antonyms:
- sacred
-
not devoted to holy or religious purposes; unconsecrated; secular (opposed to sacred).
- Synonyms:
- temporal
- Antonyms:
- spiritual
-
unholy; heathen; pagan.
profane rites.
- Synonyms:
- unhallowed
- Antonyms:
- holy
-
not initiated into religious rites or mysteries, as persons.
-
common or vulgar.
verb (used with object)
-
profanes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
profaned,
past participle, past
-
profaning
present participle
adjective
-
having or indicating contempt, irreverence, or disrespect for a divinity or something sacred
-
not designed or used for religious purposes; secular
-
not initiated into the inner mysteries or sacred rites
-
vulgar, coarse, or blasphemous
profane language
verb
-
to treat or use (something sacred) with irreverence
-
to put to an unworthy or improper use
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
nonprofanenessnoun
-
profanationnoun
-
profanenessnoun
-
profanernoun
-
semiprofanenessnoun
-
unprofanenessnoun
-
half-profaneadjective
-
nonprofaneadjective
-
profanatoryadjective
-
semiprofaneadjective
-
unprofaneadjective
-
unprofanedadjective
-
nonprofanelyadverb
-
profanelyadverb
-
semiprofanelyadverb
-
unprofanelyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
profanesimple
-
profanessimple
-
have profanedperfect
-
has profanedperfect
-
am profaningprogressive
-
are profaningprogressive
-
is profaningprogressive
-
have been profaningperfect progressive
-
has been profaningperfect progressive
Past
-
profanedsimple
-
had profanedperfect
-
was profaningprogressive
-
were profaningprogressive
-
had been profaningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of profane
1350–1400; (adj.) < Latin profānus literally, before (outside of ) the temple; replacing Middle English prophane < Medieval Latin prophānus desecrated ( see pro- 1, fane); (v.) < Latin profānāre, derivative of profānus; replacing Middle English prophanen < Medieval Latin prophānāre to desecrate
Explanation
Profane language is the kind that gets bleeped on TV. The word profane can also describe behavior that's deeply offensive because it shows a lack of respect, especially for someone's religious beliefs. The Latin root profanus means "unholy," and that's where it all started. If you take the Lord's name in vain, you've profaned Him and probably made your religious mom pretty angry too. Don't even try the profane curse words so vital to a truly great hip-hop track but perhaps not recommended for dinner with Grandma.
Vocabulary lists containing profane
Romeo and Juliet
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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Grade 11, List 3
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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:
On a never-ending feed we watch the cute and profane, sleepwalking toward an emotional state beyond shock as entertainment: the banality of passive consumption.
From Slate ● May 12, 2026
Pretty and profane, funny and frank, Paul amassed a large following.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2026
Under the First Amendment, anyone in the U.S. has the right to engage in peaceful protest, which can include yelling, using profane language, videotaping officers and following them in a car, legal experts say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 27, 2026
The Church saw vinum clarum as a profane wine, and its consumption was not imbued with Christian symbolism, nor attached to any table ceremony.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2024
My dissertation gave a different shape to history, one that was neither Mormon nor anti-Mormon, neither spiritual nor profane.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
It reads: “He that violates his oath profanes the divinity of faith itself.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2022
It profanes and pulverizes any claim she might have on representing the interests of mothers and children.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 1, 2018
It is just not true that all today's modern art despises or profanes the past.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 18, 2013
When the wind is right, the indescribable perfume of some of the world's most thoroughly fermented tidal flats profanes the air.
From Time Magazine Archive
And profanes the cell of the holy man, In the shape of a lady fair.
From Fugitive Poetry by Nathaniel Parker Willis
This is both a twilight and a twilight zone; every virtue is a simulation of itself, a hollow or profaned image.
From The New Yorker ● May 21, 2019
All that is solid melts into air; all that is holy is profaned.
From New York Times ● Dec. 10, 2015
All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.”
From The Guardian ● Aug. 7, 2015
When the call comes from Chau that set this scene in motion, as Mike plays with Kaylee, we feel with him how his one last standing temple has been profaned.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2012
Everest, the purists sniffed, had been debased and profaned.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
This bears mentioning since Hargitay opened Monday’s Emmys telecast by performing “I Love TV Screens,” profaning Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll” in doing so.
From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2026
And of course there were important rules about the worship of Yahweh, including loving him, fearing him, emulating him, and not profaning his name.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
“Some have even claimed that only by being here, by my presence, I am traumatizing the Kercher family again, and profaning Meredith’s memory. They are wrong.”
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 15, 2019
This task is made more difficult by the novelist’s mustache-twirling contempt for profaning fiction with reality.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 17, 2018
It was a cold, sarcastic, sneering review of her book, penned in that tone of contemptuous irony, the most profaning to talent, the most desecrating to beauty.
From Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 5. May 1848 by Robert Taylor Conrad
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
