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
/ siːn /
noun
sin
4
British
/ sɪn /
preposition
sin
5
British
/ saɪn /
abbreviation
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:
Hawthorne called Thoreau “ugly as sin, long-nosed, queer-mouthed, and with uncouth and somewhat rustic, although courteous manners.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
One of Odysseus’ defining triumphs becomes, in Nolan’s telling, something closer to an original sin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
She had converted to Catholicism in the 1990s, telling The Times: "To have a church which calls a sin a sin and has done with it is a blessed relief."
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
On a recent episode of What Next, Lizzie O’Leary spoke to Nagle about how America’s original sin is written into who we are today.
From Slate ● Jul. 3, 2026
My own mother had said that losing your innocence and becoming a man was learning to sin.
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
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
En er hǫfðingjar rœddu þetta milli sīn, sem nū er sagt, þā sā þeir, hvar sigldu þrjū skip all-mikil, ok fjōrða sīðast, ok var þat Ormrinn langi.
From Icelandic Primer with Grammar, Notes and Glossary by Henry Sweet
I, sink, 76. sigenunft, sf. victory. sīhte, aj. shallow. silber, sn. silver. sim = si im. sin, sm. sense, mind, feeling; courage. sīn, pr. his; sīn sëlbes, of himself, 5, 11, 67.
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
Sigvaldi jarl lēt skotta við sīn skip, ok lagði ekki til orrostu.
From Icelandic Primer with Grammar, Notes and Glossary by Henry Sweet
Once in Sin City, Aiyedatiwa skipped the casinos—the trip itself was already a gamble.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 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
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
But analysts are growing more confident in a Las Vegas comeback, and MGM also isn’t as dependent on Sin City as some competitors.
From Barron's ● Jun. 1, 2026
I was uninjured, and since pride is a Deadly Sin which I feel I generally eschew, absolutely nothing was hurt.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
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
These may be labeled, for example, SIN , ARCSIN, or ASIN.
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
"If you already have a SIN, you can just give it to me, along with your secret identity's bank information, and we can have your pension processed in a week or two."
From Super Man and the Bug Out by Cory Doctorow
Whitewashing or altering them because of the sins of their subjects is out of the playbook of despots who erase history or twist it to suit modern-day needs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
“Clash of Nations” puts enormous emphasis on the state of race relations in the America of Joe Louis—Delbert Hunt’s earnest narration recounts a lot of sins that probably don’t need quite the breathless review.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
But as sins go, this one was tough for two diehard British mystery fans to resist.
From Salon ● Jun. 16, 2026
"If you list my sins, I sound like the worst person on Earth," he said in a TED interview in 2022.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026
They invented sins that would satisfy teachers without provoking draconian punishment.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
Eve then offers the fruit to Adam, and, having both sinned, they realize their nakedness, are ashamed and make clothing.
From Salon ● May 17, 2026
Bless me, Father, for I have sinned: In the past few weeks I have watched the trailer for “Conclave” so many times it could be considered gluttony.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2024
His lawyers argued that while he had engaged in bad behavior and sinned against his wife, he had not broken the law.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 2, 2023
Even if your daughters are, in some sense, more sinned against than sinning, you could reasonably worry that putting resources in their hands will allow them to support destructive causes.
From New York Times ● Mar. 1, 2022
It was later to become his proud testimony that he hated his sins—even as he ran towards sin, even as he sinned.
From "Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin
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
Hannah was packed with ambitions and flaws; she was smart and off-putting, righteous and self-centered, struggling and privileged, sinned against and sinning.
From New York Times ● Jul. 26, 2021
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
I’ve been oppressed by all these facts and evidence that dinned against My simple claim that I am not more sinning than I’m sinned against.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 7, 2021
She told me about Hell and sinning and how we go to church to learn how to live in God’s image.
From "P.S. I Miss You" by Jen Petro-Roy
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.
