blasphemy

blasphemy 1 Blasphemy, profanity, swearing, cursing are comparable when meaning impious or irreverent speech.

Blasphemy, the strongest term (see also PROFANATION), applies strictly to an intentional or malicious utterance in which the Supreme Being is defied or offered indignity ; as such it is regarded as a serious sin in theology and as a crime at the common law

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genuine blasphemy, genuine in spirit and not purely verbal, is the product of partial belief and is as impossible to the complete atheist as to the perfect Christian— T. S. Eliot

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Profanity has a wider range and includes all irreverent reference to holy things; it is particularly applied to speech in which the names of God, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary are used lightly and irreverently, especially in expressing rage or passion in oaths, curses, and imprecations

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he had what one might call a preliminary recourse in his profanity, those "scorching, singeing blasts" he was always directing at his companions— Brooks

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Swearing and cursing are forms of profanity, the former stressing indulgence in profane and often meaningless oaths; the latter, indulgence in profane curses or imprecations (as by calling on God to damn or punish the object of one's wrath or hatred)

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among laborers and others, that ungodly custom of swearing is too frequently heard, to the dishonor of God and contempt of authority— Wren

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why, what an ass am I! . . . that I . . . must . . . unpack my heart with words, and fall a cursing— Shak.

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Analogous words: insult, *affront, indignity: scurrility, vituperation (see ABUSE n)

Antonyms: adoration

Contrasted words: worship, reverence, veneration (see under REVERE)

2 *profanation, desecration, sacrilege

Analogous words: debasement, corruption, perversion (see corresponding verbs at DEBASE): misrepresentation, falsehood, untruth, *lie