DictionaryAI

saint

SAYNT/seɪnt/SUHNT/sən(t)/

Pluralsaints

Verbsaints, sainting, sainted

8 meanings of saint

Practice

  1. 1
    honored holy personnouncountable
    A person recognized or revered as especially holy, most often one officially declared so by a Christian church; also, any of the blessed souls believed to be with God in heaven.

    Pilgrims travel for miles to visit the tomb of their favorite saint.

    The bishop argued that the martyred nun should be recognized as a saint.

    UsageChurches declare or proclaim someone a saint; the formal verb is canonize.

    Note

    It names a status that a church confers, so it pairs naturally with verbs of official action: the Roman Catholic Church proclaimed Kateri Tekakwitha a saint in 2012. Keep it apart from the everyday "very good person", which needs no church at all.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • A church can formally confer recognized status as a saint. usccb.org
    • The Roman Catholic Church proclaimed Kateri Tekakwitha a saint in 2012. vaticannews.va
  2. 2
    place nameprefixmorpheme
    Used capitalized before another term, especially a personal name, to form a place name with no direct religious meaning.

    Saint Louis grew rapidly as a river port in the nineteenth century.

    They bought a cottage near Saint Ives for the summer.

    UsageWritten with a capital and often shortened: St. Louis, St Ives.

    Note

    A naming habit that outlived its reason: parishes and other places were named for Christian saints, and the pattern hardened into a template. The resulting name works as a plain label for the place, and few people using it think of the saint behind it.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

  3. 3
    nounfigurativelycountable
    A person of exceptional goodness and patience; someone who consistently does good for others.

    Anyone who volunteers at the shelter every weekend is a saint in my book.

    She's a saint for putting up with his constant complaints without losing her temper.

    UsageCommon frames: a saint for putting up with something; you're a saint! as warm thanks.

    Similarangel, gem, treasure, paragon

    Oppositedevil, sinner

    Note

    The figurative sense works in two quite different registers. "Living saint" is earnest praise for someone whose life seems given over to doing good, as when it is said of Dorothy Day. "You're a saint!" is a casual thank-you for a favor such as minding the house. The first carries weight; the second is warm hyperbole and makes no real claim about anyone's virtue.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

  4. 4
    believernouncountable
    A Christian believer; one of the faithful living in the present world.

    Members of the small congregation still greet one another as saints, following the language of the New Testament.

    He reminded the congregation that every faithful saint shares the same calling.

    Similarbeliever, Christian

    Oppositeunbeliever

    Note

    This sense applies to living believers, not to the dead. In the King James Bible of 1611, Paul's first letter to the Corinthians greets the church there as those "called to be Saints." In that usage the name covers the whole congregation rather than a select few. Here saint is something every faithful member already is, which gives the word a scriptural, communal ring quite unlike its use for a single venerated figure.

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • The sense illustrated here refers to living Christian believers. en.wikipedia.org
    • The King James Bible was first published in 1611. wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk
    • Paul wrote the biblical letter known as First Corinthians. en.wikipedia.org
    • In 1 Corinthians 1:2, the 1611 King James Bible addresses the church at Corinth with the exact words “called to be Saints.” freely-given.org
    • In this passage, saints denotes the community of believers collectively, and membership in that community supplies the designation. en.wikipedia.org
  5. 5
    Mormonnouncountable
    A Latter-day Saint, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often called a Mormon); usually capitalized, as Saint.

    When he joined the Mormon church, the local saints brought meals to his family for a month.

    As a lifelong saint, she has kept the Word of Wisdom and never touched a cup of coffee.

    Note

    A spelling variant rather than a new meaning: Latter-day Saint usage writes the word with a capital, and the small-s form names the same church member. Lowercase saint already carries the recognized holy person and the very good person. For that reason it reads as a Latter-day Saint only when the surrounding setting makes that plain.

  6. 6
    verbtransitive
    To formally name or honor someone as a saint; to revere a person as holy.

    Rome did not saint her until centuries after her death.

    Critics warned against the rush to saint every fallen soldier.

    UsageFor official recognition by a church, canonize is the usual verb.

    Similarcanonize

    Oppositedemonize

    Note

    The verb has its own history. Middle English saynten came partly from Anglo-Norman saintir and was partly formed from the noun itself. It takes a direct object and stands in for canonize, though it can also stretch to looser reverence. It sits comfortably in the participle sainted: many Catholics wished to see Pope John Paul II sainted immediately after his death.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • The verb derives from Middle English saynten, partly from Anglo-Norman saintir and partly from the Middle English noun. en.wiktionary.org
    • Many Catholics wanted Pope John Paul II canonized immediately after his death. archny.org

Less common meanings

  1. 7
    nounarchaic
    A holy or sacred object.
    It is ruine to a man to deuoure ſaintes, and afterward to retracte the vowes.
    1610, The Second Tome of the Holie Bible, Douay–Rheims Bible
    Note

    Holy things rather than holy people: The Second Tome of the Holie Bible (1610) warns that "it is ruine to a man to deuoure saintes," meaning to swallow up what has been set apart as sacred. The sense is archaic. A modern reader will take saint to mean a person unless the context forces otherwise, so in current writing "sacred object" or "relic" says it safely.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • The Second Tome of the Holie Bible was first published in 1610. en.wikipedia.org
    • The quoted warning appears in that volume, in Proverbs 20:25; the transcription normalizes long s. en.wiktionary.org
    • Saintes here refers to sacred things rather than holy people, an archaic sense. en.wiktionary.org
  2. 8
    noun
    A title, written with a capital letter, that goes before the name of someone recognized as a saint and is often shortened to St.

    The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Peter, whose statue stands above the main door.

    Every summer, thousands of pilgrims walk the old road to the shrine of Saint James.

    UsageOften shortened to St.: St. Peter. Lowercase saint describes: Peter is a saint.

    Note

    As a title the word stops describing someone and becomes part of what they are called: Saint Peter, but Peter is a saint, which is the holy person in lowercase. Because parishes and other places were named for saints, the title traveled onto the map and became the place-name prefix, used even where no saint stands behind the name.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of saint apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1, 3–5, 7–8

From Middle English "saint," partly from Old English "sanct" and merging with Old French "saint," both from Latin "sānctus" ("holy, consecrated"), which in Late Latin became a noun meaning "a saint." This came from "sancīre" ("to make holy"), akin to "sacer" ("sacred"), and it displaced the native English word "halwe."

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 8 facts

Meaning 6

Middle English "saynten," which gave the verb, drew partly on the Middle English noun "seint" ("saint") and partly on Anglo-Norman "saintir."

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

Meaning 2

Many parishes and other places were named after Christian saints, and this sense comes from that habit.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts