sin
noun
transgression of divine law.
sin
1 American
[sin]
/ sɪn /
noun
-
transgression of divine law.
the sin of Adam.
-
any act regarded as such a transgression, especially a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle.
- Synonyms:
- wickedness, wrong
-
any reprehensible or regrettable action, behavior, lapse, etc.; great fault or offense.
It's a sin to waste time.
verb (used without object)
-
sins,
present (3rd person singular)
-
sinned,
past participle, past
-
sinning
present participle
-
to commit a sinful act.
- Synonyms:
- trespass, transgress
-
to offend against a principle, standard, etc.
verb (used with object)
-
sins,
present (3rd person singular)
-
sinned,
past participle, past
-
sinning
present participle
-
to commit or perform sinfully.
He sinned his crimes without compunction.
-
to bring, drive, etc., by sinning.
He sinned his soul to perdition.
sin
2
American
[seen]
/ sin /
noun
-
the 22nd letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
-
the consonant sound represented by this letter.
sin
3
American
abbreviation
Trigonometry.
sīn
4
American
[seen]
/ sin /
noun
Sin
5
American
[seen]
/ sin /
noun
sin
1
British
/ sɪn /
noun
-
theol
-
transgression of God's known will or any principle or law regarded as embodying this
-
the condition of estrangement from God arising from such transgression See also actual sin mortal sin original sin venial sin
-
-
any serious offence, as against a religious or moral principle
-
any offence against a principle or standard
-
informal (of an unmarried couple) to live together
verb
-
theol to commit a sin
-
(usually foll by against) to commit an offence (against a person, principle, etc)
SIN
2
British
abbreviation
sin
3
British
/ saɪn /
abbreviation
sin
4
British
/ siːn /
noun
sin
5
British
/ sɪn /
preposition
sin
Scientific
sin
Idioms
Synonym Usage
See crime.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
sinsimple
-
sinssimple
-
have sinnedperfect
-
has sinnedperfect
-
am sinningprogressive
-
are sinningprogressive
-
is sinningprogressive
-
have been sinningperfect progressive
-
has been sinningperfect progressive
Past
-
sinnedsimple
-
had sinnedperfect
-
was sinningprogressive
-
were sinningprogressive
-
had been sinningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sin1
First recorded before 900; Middle English noun sinne, sin(e), sen(ne), Old English syn(n) “moral or religious offense, misdeed”; akin to German Sünde, Old Norse synd, Latin sōns (inflectional stem sont- ) “guilty,” literally “that man being the one”; the verb is derivative of the noun; the Germanic and Latin forms all being present participle forms of the root es- “to be”; see origin at am ( def. )
Origin of sin2
First recorded in 1895–1900; from Hebrew śīn
Origin of sīn4
From Arabic
Explanation
You might not want to be the one at the party who takes the last piece of cake, but then again, it would be a sin to let it sit there, uneaten. A sin is a deeply regrettable action. The most common definition of sin is religious: it's an immoral act against God or divine law. Any serious offense, even if it's not religious, can be called a sin, and so can something less serious if you're talking about it in a joking way, as in, "You've got to buy those shoes — it would be an absolute sin not to." In math, sin is the abbreviation of sine, the trigonometric function.
Vocabulary lists containing sin
"We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks
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"The New England Primer"
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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:
I wrote a piece for the Atlantic in which I said, “The original sin of AI is granting chatbots the use of the first person.”
From Slate ● Sep. 29, 2026
Some believe turning up with an iced matcha latte in hand is a cardinal sin.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
The lack of adequate explanation does seem to be a sin of omission by “The Battle to Breathe,” especially given the narrative that leads us to the development of Trikafta.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Before we started calling one another “performative,” Tucker, Brownstein and Phair came from a time when “poser” was the worst insult and sin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
They involved doing penance for a sin not yet committed, intense and fervent penance accompanied by scourging and flagellation, so as to build up, as it were, a store of credit.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
Sigvaldi jarl lēt skotta við sīn skip, ok lagði ekki til orrostu.
From Icelandic Primer with Grammar, Notes and Glossary by Henry Sweet
Sine, sīn, n. a straight line drawn from one extremity of an arc perpendicular to the diameter that passes through the other extremity.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
Dō brāhte man die vrouwen dā si in ligen vant. si huop sīn schœne houbet mit ir vil wīȥen hant; dō kuste s’ alsō tōten den edelen ritter guot.
From A Middle High German Primer Third Edition by Joseph Wright
Sī koment underwīlen her die baȥ dā heime möhten sīn.
From A Middle High German Primer Third Edition by Joseph Wright
The present participle with sīn is sometimes used as in English, see ‘Arme Heinrich,’ l. 24.
From A Middle High German Primer Third Edition by Joseph Wright
Over the past two decades, Sin City has cut its water consumption by a third, by promoting wastewater recycling and restricting lawn watering and swimming pool sizes.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
For Flores, the EDM-fused, echoing melody “Mejor Sin Ti,” struck a personal chord; could a relationship be the only thing standing in your way to personal success?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
Chris Lewa believes all this suggests that the boats capsized, one several hours after leaving Sin Tet Maw, the other after several days of sailing south east.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Tip Toe followed Davies' award-winning series It's a Sin, about friends living in London during the HIV/Aids crisis in the 1980s.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
The second night he preached, his topic was The Wages of Sin.
From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee
Pura Casilla, the governor of San Cristobal province, told Noticias SIN that the explosion occurred in a commercial area and greatly affected businesses near the town center.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 15, 2023
The description for the folder Correspondence SIN reads:
From The Guardian ● Mar. 23, 2017
On most calculators, you will need to push the 2ND button and then the SIN button to bring up the function.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 13, 2015
SIN trainers arrive early for popular classes to hover by the studio door, ready to throw down towels to claim clients’ favorite treadmills or to set up their bikes.
From New York Times ● Dec. 17, 2014
‘And that,’ he said, as if pointing to the strongly-coloured picture he had just completed, ‘and that is SIN.’
From Leading Articles on Various Subjects by John Davidson
But while your brother’s lack of money management appears to have led your mother to make this gesture, it’s also important not to punish his children for the sins of their father.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026
For white people who felt no enmity toward their fellow man, but who believed they were paying for the sins of their fathers, he was hope.
From Salon ● Sep. 4, 2026
O’Brien sees the Nazi allegations as falsehoods that steal attention from the actor’s actual sins.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
Hindus believe completing the circuit carries great spiritual significance and helps cleanse sins.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
But as we shall see in chapter 6, using a comma to separate a subject from its predicate or a verb from one of its complements is among the most grievous sins of mispunctuation.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
She danced and sinned and regretted and atoned, and then contradicted herself by doing it all over again.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
Miss Manners also wonders who has been sinned against in this case, if your mother is, as she appears to be, the hostess and perhaps also the owner of the establishment.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 14, 2022
“I have sinned, I have broken the law, and I have no excuses,” Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, the former principal of St. James Catholic School, told the judge.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2022
“I have sinned, I’ve broken the law and I have no excuses,” Kreuper said via teleconference.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 7, 2022
And I sinned all right, just praying perfect little John Worth would turn on the crate wrong and go tumbling to the floor.
From "Worth" by A. LaFaye
His Adam is aptly named; he’s a biblical kind of hero, sinning and suffering.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 2, 2023
Crusaders came to expect standard privileges like the indulgence, a means to reduce the penance owed for sinning by giving money directly to the church or paying for masses or other clerical services.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
She observes a circus of sinning, with all seven of the cardinal ones represented.
From New York Times ● Jul. 19, 2022
He insists he is a man more sinned against than sinning and is working with lawyers to clear his name.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2021
The man laughed and said, “A preacher what owns up to sinning, huh? Ain’t heard of no such man in these parts. Naw, that would’ve stuck with me.”
From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis
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.
