saintly
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of saintly
Explanation
If someone is saintly, they're so perfect that they're almost too good to be true. A truly saintly person spends her life helping others. Saintly people are extremely kind and virtuous, modeling themselves after actual saints, people who are canonized by the Catholic church after death and are believed to be in heaven. You can also use this adjective to describe things that have to do with saints, like a saintly painting or a saintly relic. Both saintly and saint are rooted in the Latin sanctus, "holy or consecrated."
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:
With saintly calm, the too-good-for-him Dr. Barrett packs her things and returns to her peaceful castle.
From Salon ● Mar. 8, 2026
The Independent notes that he was seen as a "saintly" and "ecclesiastical" figure on Fleet Street.
From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2025
“The way her hijab haloed Nour’s head” gives her a saintly presence, “or so Jimmy thought.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
Or as close to saintly as anything involving tar sands can get.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2025
Like they were all saintly now or something.
From "P.S. I Miss You" by Jen Petro-Roy
They care about telling themselves that their profession is saintlier than it is, and they’re superior to the reformed liar who wants to work with them.
From Slate ● Jan. 28, 2014
No one of the bishops or abbots would stir out for their detected dead fellow, but “to desert him in his last need” was impossible to his saintlier brother.
From Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln A Short Story of One of the Makers of Mediaeval England by Marson, Charles L. (Charles Latimer)
Nothing could be whiter; nothing could be purer; nothing could be saintlier of aspect.
From What Is Man? and Other Essays by Twain, Mark
Or higher, holier, saintlier when, as now, All nature sacerdotal seems, and thou.
From Poems by Thompson, Francis
He doesn't mind making people unhappy, because the more they're repressed, the saintlier they'll be.
From Saint's Progress by Galsworthy, John
Yet, before turning the relic over to the police, Brand said he was on his saintliest behavior.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 21, 2022
Moreover, in all but the saintliest circles, forgiveness may be a luxury that depends upon a certain surrounding stability.
From Time Magazine Archive
That woman was the saintliest thing that ever breathed.
From The Crux by Gilman, Charlotte Perkins
He had been turned from these evil ways to become the friend and ally of the two saintliest men in England—Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher.
From Highways and Byways in Cambridge and Ely by Conybeare, Edward
If the clod of earth, like the saintliest man, is God, and there is no more to say of the matter, then how is the saint higher than the clod of earth?
From A Critical History of Greek Philosophy by Stace, W. T. (Walter Terence)
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.
