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:
Everyone at Celtic is reluctant to compare any mere mortal to Henrik Larsson, a saintly figure of the club's past.
From BBC ● May 23, 2026
When the rapping resumes, the man goes to the window to admit “a stately Raven / of the saintly days of yore.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025
This disciplined capital allocation — returning all free cash flow to shareholders via dividends and buybacks — makes it practically saintly.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2025
Similarly, after Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, the “Notorious RBG” meme ecosystem instantly expanded to include digital portraits and merchandise that cast her as a saintly defender of justice.
From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2025
Or maybe he had been saintly before and the war had made him something else.
From "A Place to Belong" by Cynthia Kadohata
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
Nothing could be whiter; nothing could be purer; nothing could be saintlier of aspect.
From What Is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain
Rather, the better and saintlier that they are, the keener do they feel their fallings off from it.
From Gloria Crucis addresses delivered in Lichfield Cathedral Holy Week and Good Friday, 1907 by J. H. (Joseph Hugh) Beibitz
Truth is not only stranger than fiction, but often saintlier than fiction.
From The New Jerusalem by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
And he was probably saintlier than they were, because he was their child.
From Recollections and Impressions 1822-1890 by Octavius Brooks Frothingham
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
I regarded his Ecclesiastical Polity as one of the richest, sweetest, wisest, saintliest books under heaven.
From Modern Skepticism: A Journey Through the Land of Doubt and Back Again A Life Story by Joseph Barker
Best loved and saintliest of our singing train, Earth's noblest tributes to thy name belong.
From Elson Grammar School Literature v4 by William H. Elson
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 W. T. (Walter Terence) Stace
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.
