saint

CEFRB1

/seɪnt/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A holy person recognized by a Christian church.

  2. 02

    noun

    A very good or kind person.

Examples

  • Many people visited the shrine where the saint lay buried.

  • It would provoke a saint.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
3
Synonyms
2

Also pronounced

  • [sn̩(t)]
  • /sən(t)/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A Christian; a faithful believer in the present world.

  2. One of the blessed in heaven.

  3. A deceased person whom a church or another religious group has officially recognised as especially holy or godly; one eminent for piety and virtue.

More examples

In context

  • Thanks for looking after the house while I'm away. You're a saint!

  • The Roman Catholic Church proclaimed Kateri Tekakwitha a saint in 2012.

  • Dorothy Day was a living saint.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Because of her lifelong devotion and many miracles, the church declared her a blank.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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”)).