# holy

Pronunciation: say "HOH-lee" US /ˈhoʊli/, UK /ˈhəʊli/

## Adjective

1. Sacred; connected with God or a religion, dedicated to religious use, or deeply revered by believers.
   - Simple: Connected with God or religion and treated with deep respect, like a holy place or holy water.
   - _Jerusalem is a holy city for Jews, Christians and Muslims._
   - _She keeps a worn copy of the holy book on her bedside table._
2. Used as an intensifier within various interjections to add force to an exclamation. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Put in front of a word to make a surprised shout stronger.
   - _Holy mackerel, the river has risen over the bridge!_
   - _She gasped, 'Holy cow, look at the size of that wave!'_
3. Morally pure and very nearly free of any fault.
   - Simple: Morally good and pure, with almost no faults at all.
   - _Few people are truly holy in every thought and deed._
   - _People who knew him described him as almost holy, a man who never lied, never boasted, and never held a grudge._
4. Placed before a noun as an intensifier, with the sense of total, utter, or dreadful. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Used before a noun to make it stronger, meaning complete or terrible.
   - _The project turned into a holy mess once the client changed the plans for the third time._
   - _Our new puppy has been a holy terror, chewing every shoe in the house._

## Noun

5. Something extremely holy, used almost exclusively in the expression 'Holy of Holies.'
   - Simple: An extremely sacred thing, used mostly in the phrase 'Holy of Holies.'
   - _Each year the high priest passed beyond the veil into the Holy of Holies._
   - _Only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and only once a year on the Day of Atonement._

## Interjection

6. An exclamation uttered to express sudden astonishment and awe. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Said on its own to show great surprise or amazement.
   - _Holy! The whole sky lit up with fireworks._
   - _She peered over the cliff edge and breathed, 'Holy.'_

## Origin

This word was inherited from Middle English 'holi', from Old English 'hāliġ' (holy, sacred, consecrated), from Proto-Germanic '*hailagaz' (holy, bringing health), ultimately from a root meaning 'healthy, whole'. It is essentially 'whole' plus '-y', and is related to German 'heilig' and Dutch 'heilig'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/holy (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).