sin
noun
transgression of divine law.
sin
1 American
[sin]
/ sɪn /
noun
-
transgression of divine law.
the sin of Adam.
-
any act regarded as such a transgression, especially a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle.
- Synonyms:
- wickedness, wrong
-
any reprehensible or regrettable action, behavior, lapse, etc.; great fault or offense.
It's a sin to waste time.
verb (used without object)
sins,
present (3rd person singular)
sinned,
past participle, past
sinning
present participle
-
to commit a sinful act.
- Synonyms:
- trespass, transgress
-
to offend against a principle, standard, etc.
verb (used with object)
sins,
present (3rd person singular)
sinned,
past participle, past
sinning
present participle
-
to commit or perform sinfully.
He sinned his crimes without compunction.
-
to bring, drive, etc., by sinning.
He sinned his soul to perdition.
sin
2
American
[seen]
/ sin /
noun
-
the 22nd letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
-
the consonant sound represented by this letter.
sin
3
American
abbreviation
Trigonometry.
sīn
4
American
[seen]
/ sin /
noun
Sin
5
American
[seen]
/ sin /
noun
sin
1
British
/ sɪn /
noun
-
theol
-
transgression of God's known will or any principle or law regarded as embodying this
-
the condition of estrangement from God arising from such transgression See also actual sin mortal sin original sin venial sin
-
-
any serious offence, as against a religious or moral principle
-
any offence against a principle or standard
-
informal (of an unmarried couple) to live together
verb
-
theol to commit a sin
-
(usually foll by against) to commit an offence (against a person, principle, etc)
SIN
2
British
abbreviation
sin
3
British
/ siːn /
noun
sin
4
British
/ sɪn /
preposition
sin
5
British
/ saɪn /
abbreviation
sin
Scientific
sin
Idioms
Synonym Usage
See crime.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
sinsimple
-
sinssimple
-
have sinnedperfect
-
has sinnedperfect
-
am sinningprogressive
-
are sinningprogressive
-
is sinningprogressive
-
have been sinningperfect progressive
-
has been sinningperfect progressive
Past
-
sinnedsimple
-
had sinnedperfect
-
was sinningprogressive
-
were sinningprogressive
-
had been sinningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sin1
First recorded before 900; Middle English noun sinne, sin(e), sen(ne), Old English syn(n) “moral or religious offense, misdeed”; akin to German Sünde, Old Norse synd, Latin sōns (inflectional stem sont- ) “guilty,” literally “that man being the one”; the verb is derivative of the noun; the Germanic and Latin forms all being present participle forms of the root es- “to be”; see origin at am ( def. )
Origin of sin2
First recorded in 1895–1900; from Hebrew śīn
Origin of sīn4
From Arabic
Explanation
You might not want to be the one at the party who takes the last piece of cake, but then again, it would be a sin to let it sit there, uneaten. A sin is a deeply regrettable action. The most common definition of sin is religious: it's an immoral act against God or divine law. Any serious offense, even if it's not religious, can be called a sin, and so can something less serious if you're talking about it in a joking way, as in, "You've got to buy those shoes — it would be an absolute sin not to." In math, sin is the abbreviation of sine, the trigonometric function.
Vocabulary lists containing sin
"We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks
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"The New England Primer"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
One of Odysseus’ defining triumphs becomes, in Nolan’s telling, something closer to an original sin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
On a recent episode of What Next, Lizzie O’Leary spoke to Nagle about how America’s original sin is written into who we are today.
From Slate ● Jul. 3, 2026
To him it was a sin not to shear the sheep.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026
Raslan Bajou, who was asleep in his tent at the time of the latest strike, said: "This is a sin, I swear it's a sin."
From BBC ● May 28, 2026
Later, he said of that morning that his sin was on him; then he knew only that he carried a burden and that he longed to lay it down.
From "Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin
En er hǫfðingjar rœddu þetta milli sīn, sem nū er sagt, þā sā þeir, hvar sigldu þrjū skip all-mikil, ok fjōrða sīðast, ok var þat Ormrinn langi.
From Icelandic Primer with Grammar, Notes and Glossary by Sweet, Henry
Sī koment underwīlen her die baȥ dā heime möhten sīn.
From A Middle High German Primer Third Edition by Wright, Joseph
Sigvaldi jarl lēt skotta við sīn skip, ok lagði ekki til orrostu.
From Icelandic Primer with Grammar, Notes and Glossary by Sweet, Henry
The present participle with sīn is sometimes used as in English, see ‘Arme Heinrich,’ l. 24.
From A Middle High German Primer Third Edition by Wright, Joseph
Dō brāhte man die vrouwen dā si in ligen vant. si huop sīn schœne houbet mit ir vil wīȥen hant; dō kuste s’ alsō tōten den edelen ritter guot.
From A Middle High German Primer Third Edition by Wright, Joseph
Las Vegas has suffered from uneven tourism trends as well as sports-betting competition, but analysts say there’s reason to believe things are looking up for Sin City.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
But head coach Sergej Jakirovic will be sitting out the Sin City jaunt as he takes a more peaceful breather before the bright lights of the Premier League beckon.
From BBC ● May 23, 2026
As he drove to Sin City for bowling tournaments, Honell would stop and “drop a few coins” into the slot machines.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
These include the Sin Nombre virus in the Western U.S. and the Andes virus in Argentina and Chile.
From MarketWatch ● May 8, 2026
Our house is now termite-free, and the wonders of Sin City are memories best suppressed.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
Pura Casilla, the governor of San Cristobal province, told Noticias SIN that the explosion occurred in a commercial area and greatly affected businesses near the town center.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 15, 2023
The description for the folder Correspondence SIN reads:
From The Guardian ● Mar. 23, 2017
These may be labeled, for example, SIN , ARCSIN, or ASIN.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 13, 2015
SIN does not have preferential booking at any studios.
From New York Times ● Dec. 17, 2014
"I just told you, I can't give out my SIN!"
From Super Man and the Bug Out by Doctorow, Cory
Whitewashing or altering them because of the sins of their subjects is out of the playbook of despots who erase history or twist it to suit modern-day needs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
Now as a bishop, with a Church commitment to tangibly repent for its past sins, she felt the institution was starting to better represent the Church her mother and many others had stayed loyal to.
From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2026
The sentiment is unobjectionable, though the act of apologizing is made infinitely easier when the sins belong to unnamed others in centuries past.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026
Those are the three deadly sins of trading.
From MarketWatch ● May 26, 2026
Though extraordinarily diverse, these crimes all have a common trait: they were sins of information.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
Miss Manners also wonders who has been sinned against in this case, if your mother is, as she appears to be, the hostess and perhaps also the owner of the establishment.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 14, 2022
“It was seeing other people who had sinned beyond anything I could even conceptualize also being found in Christ that made me feel like, ‘OK, that gives me hope,’” LaBeouf added.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2022
He left the church shortly thereafter, after confessing to the congregation as a whole that he had sinned in such a way that it would necessitate him stepping down from ministry.
From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2022
“I have sinned, I’ve broken the law and I have no excuses,” Kreuper said via teleconference.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 7, 2022
It was later to become his proud testimony that he hated his sins—even as he ran towards sin, even as he sinned.
From "Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin
His Adam is aptly named; he’s a biblical kind of hero, sinning and suffering.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 2, 2023
Crusaders came to expect standard privileges like the indulgence, a means to reduce the penance owed for sinning by giving money directly to the church or paying for masses or other clerical services.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
He never punishes his female leads for sinning; instead he celebrates their resilience.
From New York Times ● Dec. 13, 2021
He insists he is a man more sinned against than sinning and is working with lawyers to clear his name.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2021
She told me about Hell and sinning and how we go to church to learn how to live in God’s image.
From "P.S. I Miss You" by Jen Petro-Roy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.