sacrosanct

Learned borrowing from Latin sacrōsānctus.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsæk.ɹoʊˌsæŋkt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

sacrosanct (comparative more sacrosanct, superlative most sacrosanct)

1. (figurative) Beyond alteration, criticism, or interference, especially due to religious sanction; inviolable.
   • 1960 December, B. Perren, “The role of the Great Central—present and future”, in Trains Illustrated, page 765:

     It will be noted that pre-grouping routes between London and Scotland are no longer sacrosanct—for example, Glasgow St. Enoch trains no longer run necessarily to St. Pancras.

   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Armeni:

     Closer investigation revealed these as millions of elaborate crypts a few meters below the surface, left by a long-extinct spacefaring species called the zeioph. Many human universities wish to perform archeological excavations. Council law holds grave sites as sacrosanct, however, and the matter has been tied up in court for a decade.

   • 2011 August 14, Kenneth R. Harney, “Homeowner mortgage write-off may be in jeopardy”, in Los Angeles Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 9 January 2021:

     After decades of being considered politically sacrosanct, why are homeowner mortgage write-offs suddenly on the chopping block?

   • 2019 December 18, Stephen Collinson, “A grave day in history: Trump faces impeachment”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     The impeachment crisis is also a symptom of a country caught in a massive political estrangement that is tearing apart any sense of common patriotic purpose. It has exposed a political culture in which the facts – in this case, of the President’s actions – are no longer sacrosanct and that has been laced with a fog of misinformation by his allies.

   • 2023 April 26, Benjamin Lee, quoting Steven Spielberg, “Steven Spielberg: ‘No film should be revised’ based on modern sensitivity”, in The Guardian‎^[3], →ISSN:

     For me, it is sacrosanct. It’s our history, it’s our cultural heritage. I do not believe in censorship in that way.

   • 2025 August 30, Leila Abboud, Ian Johnston, Adrienne Klasa, “France's isolated PM puts his job on the line”, in FT Weekend, page 7:

     As Parisians deserted the capital in August for their sacrosanct summer holidays, French Prime Minister François Bayrou remained stationed at this desk in an otherwise hushed Hôtel de Matignon.

2. Sacred, very holy.

• sacrosanctity
• sacrosanctness

• sacred

• “sacrosanct”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, 1989
• “sacrosanct”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Borrowed from Latin sacrosanctus.

sacrosanct m or n (feminine singular sacrosanctă, masculine plural sacrosancți, feminine and neuter plural sacrosancte)

1. holy, sacred