sacrosanct

Learned borrowing from Latin sacrōsānctus.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsæk.ɹoʊˌsæŋkt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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sacrosanct (comparative more sacrosanct, superlative most sacrosanct)

1. 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:

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

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

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

2. Sacred, very holy.

Wikiquote

• 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