blaspheme
Americanverb (used with object)
-
blasphemes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
blasphemed,
past participle, past
-
blaspheming
present participle
-
to speak impiously or irreverently of (God or sacred things).
-
to speak evil of; slander; abuse.
verb (used without object)
-
blasphemes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
blasphemed,
past participle, past
-
blaspheming
present participle
verb
-
(tr) to show contempt or disrespect for (God, a divine being, or sacred things), esp in speech
-
(intr) to utter profanities, curses, or impious expressions
Synonym Usage
See curse.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
blasphemesimple
-
blasphemessimple
-
have blasphemedperfect
-
has blasphemedperfect
-
am blasphemingprogressive
-
are blasphemingprogressive
-
is blasphemingprogressive
-
have been blasphemingperfect progressive
-
has been blasphemingperfect progressive
Past
-
blasphemedsimple
-
had blasphemedperfect
-
was blasphemingprogressive
-
were blasphemingprogressive
-
had been blasphemingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of blaspheme
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Anglo-French, Late Latin blasphēmāre, from Greek blasphēmeîn “to speak profanely,” derivative of blásphēmos blasphemous
Explanation
To blaspheme is to say something offensive, specifically offensive to a religion. There are several types of blaspheming, but they usually involve saying things that are considered offensive to a religion or to a deity. If you say "Jesus Christ!" or "Good God!" when you stub your toe, some would consider that blaspheming.
Vocabulary lists containing blaspheme
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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:
“I don’t really understand how you can blaspheme about something that happened, even in 1625,” he said, offering up excerpts from Brown’s book.
From New York Times ● Jul. 10, 2021
President Emmanuel Macron spoke out in support of the teenager, arguing that in France "we have the right to blaspheme".
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2021
I’m about to blaspheme here, so hold onto your knickers, Dodger fans, but Vin Scully used to have me snoring by the fourth inning, his drone being the perfect cure for insomnia.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2021
Mila has appeared on French television to say she did not regret the video and to defend the right to blaspheme.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 12, 2020
Such errors provoke the man who reads his Shakespeare poetically, and make him blaspheme our knowledge.
From Oxford Lectures on Poetry by Andrew Cecil Bradley
The consistent mind mocks and distorts life itself, blasphemes and perverts everything in a uni verse that insists on motion.
From Time Magazine Archive
My husband blasphemes the fierce winds and extreme cold in a very picturesque manner; but the disapprobation he feels is a moral ope, not a physical discomfort.
From Memories of Hawthorne by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop
Whereas, outside, the man stood like a rock, and let Fate seam or bleach him bare; here, within walls, he rages, shows his teeth, blasphemes, or sinks into sloth.
From The Spanish Jade by William Henry Hyde
Lost lilies, bruised and sodden; Lost faces, gleaming there, Where misery blasphemes the sacred young!
From The Singing Man A Book of Songs and Shadows by Josephine Preston Peabody
If she swears, they call her a perjurer; if she weeps, they say that she is acting; and that she blasphemes when she calls on God.
From The Social Cancer by Charles E. Derbyshire
Juan de Salas stood before the inquisitor Moriz in Vallalodid on June 21, 1527, and once again denied he had blasphemed the evangelists.
From Salon ● Dec. 5, 2015
"I've had a lot more fun watching and arguing about the Twilight movies than I ever had with the Star Wars saga, that lumbering, narratively hobbled space opera," he blasphemed recently.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 15, 2012
"Texas" blasphemed, tried the door, finally fired through it.
From Time Magazine Archive
Caron's leader blasphemed softly and dodged into a side tunnel.
From A World is Born by Leigh Douglass Brackett
The call for a young man who neither blasphemed nor drank secured for him his first business engagement at Lexington.
From The Story of a Life by J. Breckenridge (John Breckenridge) Ellis
The wonderfully blaspheming Ella, who is wise to everyone’s deceits, steals many of the scenes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
As he saw it, what his son was doing, like what the sunbathers and the bikers were doing, was not blaspheming the memorial: There can be no forgetting, he said.
From New York Times ● May 28, 2014
“Bill, you’re blaspheming me,” Mr. Icahn complained, according to Mr. Ackman.
From New York Times ● Nov. 26, 2011
Cry, sons of earth, blaspheming your parentage, But know that when your futile lives are done Death will despise you who have despised life.
From Time Magazine Archive
I wasn’t blaspheming, I was asking for information.
From "A Farewell To Arms" by Ernest Hemingway
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