sin
1 Americannoun
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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)
-
to commit a sinful act.
- Synonyms:
- trespass, transgress
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to offend against a principle, standard, etc.
verb (used with object)
-
to commit or perform sinfully.
He sinned his crimes without compunction.
-
to bring, drive, etc., by sinning.
He sinned his soul to perdition.
noun
-
the 22nd letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
-
the consonant sound represented by this letter.
abbreviation
noun
noun
noun
preposition
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)
abbreviation
abbreviation
Related Words
See crime.
Other Word Forms
- sinlike adjective
- sinner noun
- sinningly adverb
- sinningness noun
- unsinning adjective
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”; am ( def. )
Origin of sin2
First recorded in 1895–1900; from Hebrew śīn
Origin of sīn4
From Arabic
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.
“There’s a Scripture,” he said: “Let him without sin—I forget where it is.”
Miriam is vivacious and energetic but dogged by an unexplained sin from her earlier life—a sin that vests itself in the sinister person of her “model.”
“Before this matter proceeds any further,” Lemuel interrupted, “What is the girl’s sin? What is she required to repent of?”
From Literature
But the focus is on distances—between people, and between the mental compartments in which they file away their sins.
Jayes is also on the parish council "for my sins", he says with a wry smile.
From BBC
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.
