sin
- 1An act that breaks religious law or goes against divine will.
Some believers regard even a small lie as a sin against God.
In confession, he named his sins one by one and asked for absolution.
UsageYou commit a sin, often a sin against God, and confess or are forgiven your sins.
Similartransgression, wrongdoing
Note
The word probably began as a verdict: Old English synn goes back to a form meaning "being, true", which implied a finding of "truly guilty" against a charge. In religious use it still names an offense with someone wronged, so the usual construction is a sin against God, and adjectives weigh it, as when James Buchanan, defending his presidency in a memoir, recorded the charge that slavery was a grievous sin against God.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Old English synn ultimately derives from a form meaning “being, true,” interpreted as implying a verdict of “truly guilty.” en.wikipedia.org
- James Buchanan wrote a memoir defending his presidency. lancasterhistory.org
- Buchanan recorded the accusation that slavery was a grievous sin against God, attributing that view to abolitionists. en.wiktionary.org
- 2The condition of being sinful; moral corruption or wickedness in general.
The novel paints the frontier town as a den of sin and corruption.
Medieval preachers described humankind as sunk in sin and in need of grace.
UsageOften a life of sin, a den of sin, sunk in sin.
Similarwickedness, evil, vice, immorality, iniquity
Oppositevirtue, righteousness, goodness
- 3A wrongful or regrettable act of any kind, or a serious fault or flaw in something such as a film or a plan.
The paper's real sin was not the error itself but the cover-up that followed.
The film's greatest sin is that it turns a fascinating true story into something dull.
UsageOften with an adjective: the real sin, its greatest sin.
Similaroffense, wrong, misdeed, fault, transgression
Note
Outside religion the word keeps its moral weight but loses its god: the wrong is done to people or to decency, not to divine law. It is often ranked with an adjective, as in the real sin, or the "paramount sin" that Margery Allingham's experienced policemen hear behind a story in The China Governess. In its milder use for a flaw, such as a film's worst sin, nobody is wronged at all.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- Margery Allingham wrote The China Governess; its narrator describes experienced policemen hearing a story that indicates the “paramount sin.” fadedpage.com
- 4To act against divine will or break a religious law; more loosely, to do wrong against a moral or social standard.
Many faiths teach that people can sin in thought as well as in deed.
The preacher said that anyone who sins against a neighbor sins against God as well.
UsageFollowed by against: sin against someone, or be sinned against. Forms: sinned, sinning.
Similartransgress, err
Less common meanings
- 5The symbol for sine, the trigonometric function.
The graph of y = sin x repeats itself every 2π radians.
The alternating voltage can be written as V sin(ωt), where ω is the angular frequency.
UsageRead aloud as sine, so sin x is said sine x.
Note
Mathematicians set the symbol in upright type, not italic, so it reads as a function name rather than a product of s, i and n, and they read it aloud as sine. Parentheses are optional around a simple angle (sin x) and often added around anything longer, as in V sin(ωt), and a power goes between symbol and angle: sin² x is the square of sin x.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Parentheses are optional around an unambiguous product such as ωt: V sin ωt is standard notation. openstax.org
- sin² x denotes the square of sin x. openlab.citytech.cuny.edu
- 6Short for sin bin: in sports such as rugby and ice hockey, the area where a penalized player must sit out for a set time.
UsageUsed with in: a player is in the sin.
Note
Sports talk clips the sin bin to its first word, and the short form turns up now and then in match reports. Leighton Koopman, reporting the Springboks' 2023 win over the All Blacks, has Cheslin Kolbe "sitting with his jersey over his head in the sin after a yellow card".
- 7The moon god of Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian mythology.
A crescent moon, the emblem of Sin, is carved at the top of the boundary stone.
The king rebuilt the temple of Sin and filled it with rich offerings.
Note
The moon god goes by several names: Sin in Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, while Nanna, Suen and the joined form Nanna-Suen name the same deity. On the page only the capital S separates the god from the everyday word for wrongdoing, so in a phrase like the temple of Sin the capital does real work.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Sin is the moon god in Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian mythology. en.wiktionary.org
- Nanna, Suen and Nanna-Suen name the same deity. en.wikipedia.org
- 8Short for social insurance number: a nine-digit number issued by the Canadian government to eligible people for work, taxes and government benefits.
Enter your SIN on the first page of your tax return before you file.
The bank asked for her SIN before opening the investment account.
Note
The initialism belongs to Canadian English as the number belongs to Canadian paperwork: nine digits issued to citizens, permanent residents and some temporary residents for government services and income taxation.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- SIN is the initialism for Canada's Social Insurance Number, which has nine digits. canada.ca
- SINs are issued by the Canadian government through Service Canada. canada.ca
- Recipients include Canadian citizens, permanent residents and eligible temporary residents. canada.ca
- SINs are used for government programs and income taxation. canada.ca
- 9A sacrifice offered on account of sin; a sin offering.
Note
The language of sacrifice gives the offering the name of what it atones for. A line of 2 Corinthians in the King James Bible of 1611 is often read this way: in "he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin", the first sin is the offering, the second the wrong against God. On that reading, he was made a sacrifice, not made sinful.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Biblical sacrificial language uses the same word for sin and the offering for it. gutenberg.org
- The King James Bible was first published in 1611. loc.gov
- The quoted wording occurs in 2 Corinthians 5:21 in the King James Bible. en.wikisource.org
- A traditional interpretation takes the first occurrence of sin as an expiatory offering. ccel.org
- The second occurrence refers to wrongdoing; the sacrificial interpretation does not mean Christ became sinful. ccel.org
- 10A person who embodies sin; someone extremely wicked.
Note
Calling someone a sin turns the person into the vice itself, and the word then works as invective rather than description. In Shakespeare and Fletcher's Henry VIII, written in 1613, a man whose ambition has robbed the land of noble Buckingham is denounced to his face as "thou scarlet sin".
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Henry VIII is a collaboration by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher. rsccmslive.azurewebsites.net
- Surrey directly addresses Wolsey as 'thou scarlet sin', accusing his ambition of robbing the land of noble Buckingham, in Act 3, scene 2. folger.edu
- 11SaySEENUS/sin/UK/siːn/The Hebrew letter shin written with a dot above its upper left (שׂ), standing for the sound s rather than sh.
In unpointed Hebrew text, a sin looks exactly like a shin, so readers rely on the word to tell them apart.
The teacher pointed out that the dot sits on the left of a sin and on the right of a shin.
Note
Its name is a reworking of shin, and the letter itself is shin's shape with different pointing. The pair mirror each other neatly: the names differ by a single sound, s against sh, just as the written letters differ by the position of a single dot.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- The name sin is a modification of shin. en.wiktionary.org
- Sin and shin share their basic shape and differ in the position of one dot. en.wiktionary.org
- The names differ by s versus sh, corresponding to the differently positioned dot. en.wiktionary.org
- 12SaySEENUS/sin/UK/siːn/A letter of the Arabic alphabet, written س.
Arabic learners often mix up sin and shin, which has the same basic shape but three dots above it.
In the Arabic inscription, the calligrapher stretched the sin into one long, flat stroke.
- 13A desert named in the Hebrew Bible, lying between Elim and Mount Sinai.
- 14Short for Sinaloa: a state in northwestern Mexico on the Pacific coast, used especially in addresses and tables.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of sin apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origins
The deepest root is Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- ("to be"), which formed *h₁sónts ("being, true"), suggesting a verdict that someone accused was "truly guilty." From this came Proto-Germanic *sundī or *sundijō ("sin") and *sunjō ("truth, excuse"), then Proto-West Germanic *sunnju, Old English synn ("sin"), and Middle English sinne. Old English sōþ ("true," see sooth) is related, and suttee is a doublet. Cognates include German Sünde, West Frisian sûnde, and Swedish synd, all meaning "sin," along with Gothic sunja ("truth") and Latin sons ("guilty, criminal").
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 11 facts
- The ultimate root is Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”), whose participle was *h₁sónts (“being, true”). en.wiktionary.org
- The proposed semantic development involves a verdict of being truly guilty of an accusation. en.wikipedia.org
- The proposed Germanic ancestors include *sundī and *sundijō (“sin”) and *sunjō (“truth, excuse”). en.wikipedia.org
- The English transmission runs through Proto-West Germanic *sunnju, Old English synn, and Middle English sinne. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English sōþ (“true”), ancestral to sooth, is related. en.wikipedia.org
- Suttee is a doublet of sin. en.wiktionary.org
- German Sünde means sin and is cognate with English sin. en.wiktionary.org
- West Frisian sûnde means sin and is cognate with English sin. en.wiktionary.org
- Swedish synd means sin and is cognate with English sin. en.wiktionary.org
- Gothic sunja means truth and shares the Proto-Germanic ancestor *sunjō. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin sons means guilty or criminal and is cognate with sin. en.wiktionary.org
A modification of shin.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Sin, the letter name, is a modification of shin. en.wiktionary.org
From Akkadian Sîn, the name of the Mesopotamian moon god, who was also known by the Sumerian name Nanna.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The divine name Sin comes from Akkadian Sîn. en.wiktionary.org
- Sîn is the Akkadian name of the Mesopotamian moon god. en.wikipedia.org
- Nanna is the Sumerian name of the same deity. en.wiktionary.org
A shortening of Latin sinus, the word that also gave English sine.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The mathematical symbol sin is a shortening of Latin sinus. en.wiktionary.org
- English sine was borrowed from Latin sinus. en.wiktionary.org