Word.ws English Dictionary

saint

/seɪnt//sɛnt/

saint noun: a deceased person whom a church or another religious group has officially recognised as especially holy or godly; one eminent for piety and virtue. Also the alternative letter-case form of Saint.

saint: a deceased person whom a church or another religious group has officially recognised as especially...
Image: Cigoli, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

saint (plural saints)

  1. (generally) A deceased person whom a church or another religious group has officially recognised as especially holy or godly; one eminent for piety and virtue.
    • The Roman Catholic Church proclaimed Kateri Tekakwitha a saint in 2012.
  2. One of the blessed in heaven.
    • Then ſhall thy Saints unmixt, and from th' impure / Farr ſeparate, circling thy holy Mount / Unfained Halleluiahs to thee ſing,1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
  3. A Christian; a faithful believer in the present world.
    • Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Iesus, called to be Saints, with all that in euery place call vpon the Name of Iesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 1:2
  4. (broadly, figuratively) A person with similarly overwhelming positive qualities; one who does good.
    • Dorothy Day was a living saint.
    • Thanks for looking after the house while I'm away. You're a saint!
  5. (archaic) A holy object.
    • It is ruine to a man to deuoure ſaintes, and afterward to retracte the vowes.1610, The Second Tome of the Holie Bible, […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Doway: Laurence Kellam, […], →OCLC, Prouerbes 20:25, page 299

Verb

saint (third-person singular simple present saints, present participle sainting, simple past and past participle sainted)

  1. (transitive) Synonym of canonize: to honor, formally name, or revere as a saint.
    • Many Catholics wished to see Pope John Paul II sainted immediately after his death.
    Synonyms:
    canonize

Noun (2) capitalized: Saint

Saint (plural Saints)

  1. A title given to a saint, often prefixed to the person's name.
    • Saint Stephen was the first martyr.
    Synonyms:
    St, St., S, S., SS, SS.
  2. (Mormonism) A Latter-day Saint, a Mormon.
    • the Kirtland Saints
    • They settled in Kaw Township, a dozen miles from Independence, becoming the first Saints to be resettled in the newly designated Zion.2011, Terryl L. Givens, Matthew J. Grow, Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism, →ISBN, page 53
  3. Someone connected with any of the sports teams known as the Saints, such as a player or coach, or sometimes a fan.
    • In 1971, during Archie Manning's first game as a New Orleans Saint and the season opener against the Los Angeles Rams, […]2008, Monica M. Dalide, 683 Things About New Orleans, Outskirts Press, page 88
    • Former New Orleans Saint and current blues historian at Tulane University, Nick Travers becomes involved in a case related to the mysterious death […]2008, David Rife, Jazz Fiction: A History and Comprehensive Reader's Guide, Scarecrow Press, →ISBN, page 86
  4. (UK) Saint class, a class of steam locomotives used on the GWR.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Saint

Saint (plural Saints)

  1. A surname.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Saint

the Saint

  1. A nickname, given to someone of very good character.
  2. A nickname, given to someone of extreme religiosity.

Also used as

saint is also the alternative letter-case form of Saint.

saint meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

saint in Hindi

person proclaimed as saint
मुकद्दस mukaddas, वाली vālī, महात्मा mahātmā, संत sant, पुनीत punīt

saint in Tamil

புனிதர், துறவி, புனிதன்

saint in Marathi

संत

saint in Urdu

person proclaimed as saint
مقدس muqadas, مقدسہ muqaddasa, بزرگ, ولی valī, ولیہ valīyā
More languagesFewer languages
saint in Bengali
ওলি ōli, পীর pir
saint in Telugu
సాధువు
saint in Malayalam
വിശുദ്ധൻ, വിശുദ്ധന്
saint in Kannada
ಸಂತ
saint in Punjabi
ਸੰਤ, ਸੰਤ ਜੀ
saint in Gujarati
સંત
saint in Odia
ସନ୍ଥ, ସାଧୁ
saint in Nepali
सन्त, संत
saint in Tagalog
santo
saint in Arabic
وَلِيّ waliyy, قِدِّيس qiddīs
saint in Malay
wali, santo
saint in Indonesian
santo, santa
saint in Persian
مقدس moqaddas, قدیس qeddis, سن san, سنتا santâ
saint in Thai
นักบุญ nák-bun, วิสุทธิชน
saint in Vietnamese
thánh, thánh nhân, vị thánh, tuyên thánh

Examples of saint in a sentence

  • Under Christianization, many converted societies transformed their pagan deities into saints.
  • Some saints are believed to have forgiven their martyrizers during fatal torture.
  • He's an honest-to-God saint; I don't know what I would do without him!

All 40 example sentences with saint

Synonyms of saint

Forms of saint

Noun
pluralsaints
alternative formSt
alternative formSt.
pluralSaints
Verb
third-person singular presentsaints
present participlesainting
past participlesainted
pastsainted
Proper noun
pluralSaints

Plural of saint: saints

Origin of saint

From Middle English saint, seint, sainct, seinct, sanct, senct, partly from Old English sanct (“saint”) and confluence with Old French saint, seinte (Modern French saint); both from Latin sānctus (“holy, consecrated”, in Late Latin as a noun, “a saint”), past participle of sancīre (“to render sacred, make holy”), akin to sacer (“holy, sacred”). Doublet of Sanctus. Displaced native Middle English halwe (“saint”) from Old English hālga (“saint, holy one”) (> Modern English hallow (“saint”)).

From Middle English saynten, seinten, sonten, partly from Anglo-Norman saintir and partly from the noun Middle English seint, seynt (see above).

From saint.

Words formed from saint

Phrases with saint

129 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with saint

10 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about saint

What does saint mean?
Saint means a deceased person whom a church or another religious group has officially recognised as especially holy or godly; one eminent for piety and virtue.
What is saint in Hindi?
Saint in Hindi is मुकद्दस (mukaddas), वाली (vālī), महात्मा (mahātmā). See Saint meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is saint?
Saint can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce saint?
Saint is pronounced /seɪnt/.
What is the plural of saint?
The plural of saint is saints.

Words near saint in the dictionary

  1. sains
  2. Sainsbo's
  3. Sainsbury
  4. Sainsburys
  5. Sainshand
  6. saint
  7. Saint Agatha
  8. Saint Agnes' Eve
  9. Saint Agnes' Eves
  10. Saint Albans
  11. Saint Andrew

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: saint (page history and authors); Saint (page history and authors); saint (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); saint (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); saint (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); saint (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); saint (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); saint (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); saint (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); saint (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); saint (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

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

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