sin

/sɪn/

/sɪn/

Other forms: sins; sinned; sinning

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.

Definitions of sin

1. noun

   an act that is regarded by theologians as a transgression of God's will
   synonyms: sinning, trespass

   types:

   fall

   a lapse into sin; a loss of innocence or of chastity

   actual sin

   a sin committed of your own free will (as contrasted with original sin)

   original sin

   a sin said to be inherited by all descendants of Adam

   deadly sin, mortal sin

   an unpardonable sin entailing a total loss of grace

   venial sin

   a pardonable sin regarded as entailing only a partial loss of grace

   pride, superbia

   unreasonable and inordinate self-esteem (personified as one of the deadly sins)

   envy, invidia

   spite and resentment at seeing the success of another (personified as one of the deadly sins)

   avarice, avaritia, covetousness, greed, rapacity

   reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins)

   acedia, laziness, sloth

   apathy and inactivity in the practice of virtue (personified as one of the deadly sins)

   anger, ira, ire, wrath

   belligerence aroused by a real or supposed wrong (personified as one of the deadly sins)

   gluttony, gula, overeating

   eating to excess (personified as one of the deadly sins)

   lust, luxuria

   self-indulgent sexual desire (personified as one of the deadly sins)

   type of:

   evildoing, transgression

   the act of transgressing; the violation of a law or a duty or moral principle
2. noun

   estrangement from god
   synonyms: sinfulness, wickedness

   types:

   mark of Cain

   the mark that God set upon Cain now refers to a person's sinful nature

   type of:

   unrighteousness

   failure to adhere to moral principles
3. noun

   violent and excited activity
   “they began to fight like sin”

   synonyms: hell

   type of:

   activity

   any specific behavior
4. verb

   commit a sin; violate a law of God or a moral law
   synonyms: transgress, trespass

   types:

   fall

   yield to temptation or sin

   type of:

   breach, break, go against, infract, offend, transgress, violate

   act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises
5. verb

   commit a faux pas or a fault or make a serious mistake
   synonyms: blunder, boob, drop the ball, goof

   type of:

   breach, break, go against, infract, offend, transgress, violate

   act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises
6. noun

   the 21st letter of the Hebrew alphabet
   type of:

   alphabetic character, letter, letter of the alphabet

   the conventional characters of the alphabet used to represent speech
7. noun

   ratio of the length of the side opposite the given angle to the length of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle
   synonyms: sine

   type of:

   circular function, trigonometric function

   function of an angle expressed as a ratio of the length of the sides of right-angled triangle containing the angle