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
“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
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
"What do you know, honest Josie-Jo on the Supreme Court. She was a smart kid, too, but she never once beat me at chess. Tell me about the others, Turtle. How's poor, saintly Crow?"
From "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin
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
He doesn't mind making people unhappy, because the more they're repressed, the saintlier they'll be.
From Saint's Progress by John Galsworthy
You will read for yourself, by and by, many others: stories of older Saints, and perhaps of brighter Saints, or it may be even of saintlier Saints than these.
From A Book of Quaker Saints by L. V. (Lucy Violet) Hodgkin
The modern woman of the advanced type refuses to be longer regarded as a gentler and saintlier type of humanity, who must be petted, reverenced, and protected.
From The Scrap Book, Volume 1, No. 5 July 1906 by Various
Is my soul a saintlier thing than it was a year ago?
From The Warfare of the Soul Practical Studies in the Life of Temptation by Shirley C. Hughson
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
The saintliest and the meanest men have still common ground for brotherhood.
From The Religious Spirit of the Slavs (1916) Sermons On Subjects Suggested By The War, Third Series by Nikolai Velimirović
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
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
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.
