sacrament

American  

[sak-ruh-muhnt] / ˈsæk rə mənt /

noun

1. Ecclesiastical. a visible sign of an inward grace, especially one of the solemn Christian rites considered to have been instituted by Jesus Christ to symbolize or confer grace: the sacraments of the Protestant churches are baptism and the Lord's Supper; the sacraments of the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches are baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, matrimony, penance, holy orders, and extreme unction.

2. Also called Holy Sacrament.  (often initial capital letter) the Eucharist or Lord's Supper.

3. the consecrated elements of the Eucharist, especially the bread.

4. something regarded as possessing a sacred character or mysterious significance.

5. a sign, token, or symbol.

6. an oath; solemn pledge.

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sacrament British  

/ ˈsækrəmənt /

noun

1. an outward sign combined with a prescribed form of words and regarded as conferring some specific grace upon those who receive it. The Protestant sacraments are baptism and the Lord's Supper. In the Roman Catholic and Eastern Churches they are baptism, penance, confirmation, the Eucharist, holy orders, matrimony, and the anointing of the sick (formerly extreme unction)

2. (often capital) the Eucharist

3. the consecrated elements of the Eucharist, esp the bread

4. something regarded as possessing a sacred or mysterious significance

5. a symbol; pledge

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sacrament Cultural  

1. A religious ceremony or rite. Most Christian churches reserve the term for those rites that Jesus himself instituted, but there are disagreements between them on which rites those are. The Lutheran Church, for example, maintains that baptism and Communion are the only sacraments, whereas in the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, there are five more: confirmation; confession; anointing of the sick; the ordination of clergy; and the marriage of Christians.

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Etymology

Origin of sacrament

1150–1200; Middle English < Medieval Latin sacrāmentum obligation, oath, Late Latin: mystery, rite, equivalent to Latin sacrā ( re ) to devote + -mentum -ment

Example Sentences

L.A. is a city of reinvention, where second chances are a civic sacrament and residents often overlook the flaws of the famous.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 13, 2026

He had come to sponsor my teenage son Finn as he received the sacrament of Confirmation, a Catholic rite of adolescence.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 8, 2025

Catholicism also makes a ceremony of transubstantiating flesh into a sacrament to feed the soul.

From Salon • Oct. 4, 2024

Smith, the Supreme Court upheld the firing of two Native American employees who had been denied unemployment benefits after using peyote, a sacrament in their religious ceremonies.

From Slate • Mar. 12, 2024

At the same time the sacrament of the Mass affirms ‘the perpetual contemporaneity of The Passion’ and celebrates the ‘marriage of time present with time past’.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Related Words

• communion
• liturgy