Also called Holy Scripture. Also called Holy Scriptures. Often Scriptures. the sacred writings of the Old or New Testaments or both together.
(often lowercase) any writing or book, especially when of a sacred or religious nature.
(sometimes lowercase) a particular passage from the Bible; text.
Also called: Holy Scripture. Holy Writ. the Scriptures. Christianity the Old and New Testaments
any book or body of writings, esp when regarded as sacred by a particular religious group
1250–1300; Middle English < Latin scrīptūra writing. See script, -ure
Scripture is a sacred religious text. It usually refers to the Christian Bible, but it can refer to other religions' texts as well. The noun scripture is most often used for specifically Christian writing, and it's often capitalized. However, it can refer to any religion's sacred writing: "Hindu scripture is written on the walls of the temple." In the 1300s, scripture sometimes meant simply "writing," though it more often referred to sacred words, especially in the Christian Bible. Its root word is the Latin script, or "writing."
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
What Scripture doesn’t command, ad nauseam or otherwise, is the coercion of other people to do those things or to pay for them.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026
If you read “The Scripture of the Golden Eternity,” you really see how much he was impacted and inspired by Buddhism and how much he actually understood the teachings.
From Salon • Jul. 30, 2025
Let alone that it was brutal, systematic, and defended by law and Scripture alike.
From Slate • Apr. 23, 2025
Scripture and natal charts existed in tandem, along with palm-reading diagrams, recipes for potions and instructions for alchemical reactions.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 28, 2025
And each for all its bumptiousness brought with it the same thing: the Scripture on which our ethics, our art and poetry, and our relationships are built.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
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.
