Word.ws English Dictionary

holy

UK/ˈhəʊli//ˈhoʊli/

holy adjective: dedicated to a religious purpose or a god.

Adjective (1)

holy (comparative holier, superlative holiest)

  1. Dedicated to a religious purpose or a god.
    • I'm planning to visit the holy city of Jerusalem this Christmas.
    • ... where he and Basil read together poems and philosophies, and holier things, or talked low and misopogonistcally of their fellow-student Julian’s bearded boding smile were his happiest days.1877, E.B. Browning, Some account of the Greek Christian poets, page 147
    Synonyms:
    sacred, godly
  2. Revered in a religion.
    • This tree is considered holy in my culture.
    Synonyms:
    sacred, godly
  3. Morally perfect or flawless, or nearly so.
    • My grandmother is a very holy woman.
  4. Separated or set apart from (something unto something or someone else).
  5. Set apart or dedicated for a specific purpose, or for use by a single entity or person.
    Synonyms:
    reserved, special
    Antonyms:
    common
  6. (slang) Used as an intensifier in various interjections.
    • Holy cow, I can’t believe he actually lost the race!
    • Those children next door are holy terrors!

Interjection

  1. (slang) An expression of astonishment and awe.
    Synonyms:
    holy shit

Noun

holy (plural holies)

  1. (archaic) A thing that is extremely holy; used almost exclusively in Holy of Holies.
    • The holy of holies, a cubical space of ten cubits on the side, was separated from the larger antechamber by four columns, which were also covered with gold and stood upon silver sockets; they bore a second curtain of four colors.1882, Franz von Reber, Joseph Thacher Clarke, History of Ancient Art, page 146

Adjective (2) capitalized: Holy

Holy

  1. Alternative letter-case form of holy used when referring to an important figure, such as God, or to an important item or event.

holy meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam and Arabic

holy in Hindi

dedicated to a religious purpose
पवित्र pavitra

holy in Urdu

dedicated to a religious purpose
مقدس muqaddas

holy in Malayalam

dedicated to a religious purpose
പരിശുദ്ധ pariśuddha, വിശുദ്ധ viśuddha
revered in a religion
വിശുദ്ധ viśuddha

holy in Arabic

dedicated to a religious purpose
مُقَدَّس muqaddas
More languagesFewer languages
holy in Malay
suci
holy in Indonesian
kudus, keramat, suci
holy in Persian
مقدس moqaddas, اسپنتا espantâ, سپنتا sepantâ
holy in Thai
ศักดิ์สิทธิ์ sàk sìt
holy in Vietnamese
thánh, thần thánh

Examples of holy in a sentence

  • By all that is holy, I'll put an end to this.
  • The conflict is beginning to look like a holy war between Sunnis and Shias.
  • Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of death. Amen.

All 40 example sentences with holy

Synonyms of holy

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

1 more antonymsFewer antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of holy

Forms of holy

Adjective
comparativeholier
superlativeholiest
alternative capitalizedHoly
alternative pronunciation-spelling'oly
alternative form (archaic)holie
alternative form (archaic)hooly
Noun
pluralholies

Origin of holy

From Middle English ali, aly, hale, halege, hali, halȝe, hayly, holi, holia, holie, holiȝ, holy, hooly, oli, oly, wholy, woly, from Old English hāleġ, hāliġ (“holy, sacred; healthy, sound”), from Proto-West Germanic *hailag, from Proto-Germanic *hailagaz (“holy, sacred”), from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“healthy; whole”), from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos (“intact, whole; complete; hale, healthy, sound”), equivalent to whole + -y and a doublet of later wholly. Cognates Cognate with Scots halie, haly (“holy”), Yola holly, holy (“holy”), Saterland Frisian helig (“holy”), Alemannic German, Dutch, and German heilig (“holy, sacred”), Cimbrian hòolig (“holy”), Luxembourgish helleg (“holy”), Vilamovian haeliḱ, haliky, hȧlikjy, hǡliḱ (“holy”), Yiddish הייליק (heylik, “holy”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hellig (“holy”), Faroese heilagur (“holy”), Icelandic heilagur, helgur (“holy”), Norwegian Nynorsk heilag, heilag’u (“holy”), Swedish helig (“holy”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌻𐌰𐌲𐍃 (hailags, “holy”); also Latin cael, caelus, caelum, coelus, coelum (“heaven; sky; climate, weather”), Belarusian цэ́лы (cély, “entire, whole”), Bulgarian цял (cjal, “entire, full, intact, whole; real, regular, veritable”), Czech...

Words formed from holy

Phrases with holy

124 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with holy

12 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about holy

What does holy mean?
Holy means dedicated to a religious purpose or a god.
What is holy in Hindi?
Holy in Hindi is पवित्र (pavitra). See Holy meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is holy?
Holy can be an adjective, an interjection or a noun.
How do you pronounce holy?
Holy is pronounced /ˈhəʊli/ (UK).

Words near holy in the dictionary

  1. Holway
  2. Holways
  3. Holwell
  4. Holwells
  5. Holwill
  6. holy
  7. Holy Alliance
  8. holy balls
  9. holy bark
  10. holy based
  11. holy basil

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: holy (page history and authors); Holy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-holy.ogg.

Cite this entry: “holy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/holy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.