sacrilege
/ˈsakrɪlɪdʒ
/noun [mass noun]
Violation or misuse of what is regarded as sacred: putting ecclesiastical vestments to secular use was considered sacrilege...
- Intervention by authority was necessary for very serious sins such as adultery, murder, and sacrilege.
- A beard and a mustache have been added to the face of the devil in the picture, so that the killer is guilty of sacrilege no less than murder.
- For the Actionists, as for the artists cited above, there is no notion of sacrilege or blasphemy.
Synonyms
desecration, profanity, profaneness, profanation, blasphemy, impiety, impiousness, sin, irreverence, irreligion, irreligiousness, godlessness, unholiness, disrespect
Origin
Middle English: via Old French from Latin sacrilegium, from sacrilegus 'stealer of sacred things', from sacer, sacr- 'sacred' + legere 'take possession of'.