WORD OF THE DAY: SACROSANCT
adjective | SAK-roh-sankt
Sacrosanct is a formal word that describes something too important and respected to be changed or criticized. It can also mean “most sacred or holy.”
// While the family’s new matriarch aimed to maintain the familiar traditions of the holidays, she did not consider the details of their celebration to be sacrosanct.
Examples of sacrosanct
“Sen. Paul Strommen of Sidney … said there’s no appetite among senators to empty the Veterans Aid Fund. ‘There’s certain things that are kind of sacrosanct, and veterans’ aid is one of those things.'” — Todd von Kampen, The North Platte (Nebraska) Telegraph, 7 Mar. 2026.
Did You Know?
Contrary to the beliefs of some, language is not sacrosanct; rather, it is subject to constant modification based on the needs, experiences, and even whims of those who use it. Take the word sacrosanct itself, which likely comes from the Latin phrase sacro sanctus meaning “made holy by a sacred rite.” There’s a definite semantic softening from that to the “too important and respected to be changed or criticised” meaning of sacrosanct. But holy moly, has sanctus led to a whole bunch of other English words with a truly pious flavour, from saint and sanctimony to sanctify and sanctuary. Sacrum (“a sacred rite”), source of the sacro in sacro sanctus, is no slouch either, living on in English anatomy as the name for our pelvic vertebrae—a shortening of os sacrum, which translates literally as “holy bone.”
Merriam Webster Dictionary
