unholy
Americanadjective
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not holy; not sacred or hallowed.
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impious; sinful; wicked.
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Informal. dreadful; ungodly.
They got us out of bed at the unholy hour of three in the morning.
adjective
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not holy or sacred
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immoral or depraved
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informal outrageous or unnatural
an unholy alliance
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unholy
before 1000; Middle English; Old English unhālig (cognate with Dutch onheilig, Old Norse ūheilagr ). See un- 1, holy
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:
On paper Zach Cregger and Resident Evil are the perfect unholy alliance.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
There’s a difference between a film that becomes a cult classic because it’s genuinely underrated, and one that achieves that status through the unholy, rose-colored lens of social media obsession.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026
An unholy mashup of a waiting room and a bus, the people mover is slow, uncomfortable, and offensive to the eye.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
The noise, according to singer Katie Gavin, was like an unholy screech.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
Austin reflected and helped forge the uncompromising position of most black North Carolinians toward Hodges’ plan: “The Negroes of this state will not be stampeded into such an unholy scheme,” he wrote.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
But last week in Mexico, where Maciel founded the ultraconservative Legion in 1941, the scandal took an even unholier turn.
From Time ● Mar. 8, 2010
But nightclub owners had unholier reasons to cry into their champagne last week.
From Time Magazine Archive
Nay, Margaret, I doubt not my thoughts have been far unholier than thine.
From In Convent Walls The Story of the Despensers by M. (Madelaine) Irwin
Eastman, the New Yorker from Ithaca who died in 1990 homeless at age 50, paraded himself as the unholiest Minimalist, an outrageous dissonant dissident even in the seemingly accepting new music community.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2021
It was distinctly unbecoming in a woman whose sins were so grievous to ripple on so light-heartedly about the unholiest of cities when they sat there as jurors waiting to hear her plea for mercy.
From Otherwise Phyllis by Charles Dana Gibson
By the time the men tumbled up, Jacka had his helm up, and the Van der Werf, with sheets pinned, was leaning to it and knocking up the unholiest sputter.
From The White Wolf and Other Fireside Tales by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
Amfortas, mourning that he, the unholiest of them, should be called, opens a golden shrine and takes out the crystal vessel.
From The Standard Operas (12th edition) Their Plots, Their Music, and Their Composers by George P. (George Putnam) Upton
As this apartment threatened him with still more rent veils of the unholiest, he took his leave without special ceremony, and went back without the Lector, who had to-day to give a reading.
From Titan: A Romance v. 1 (of 2) by Jean Paul Friedrich Richter
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