holiness

holiness, sanctity are often used without distinction to mean either the state or the character of one who is spiritually perfect or of something which is sacred or hallowed.

Holiness more often implies spiritual perfection, whether intrinsic and essential

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the holiness of the Lord

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or acquired by effort

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the holiness of a saint

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than it does sacredness, although the latter implication is not uncommon

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and an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it— Isa 35:8

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Sanctity may be used either as denoting saintliness or the holiness attained by a saint

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die in the odor of sanctity

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men of eminent sanctity— Burke

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or the quality of being sacred or by law and especially by natural or divine law immune from violation

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the sense of the dignity of human nature is an even more civilized feeling than the sense of the sanctity of human life— Brownell

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there is no greater sanctity in the right to combine than in the right to make other con-tracts— Justice Holmes

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Analogous words: sacredness, divineness or divinity, spirituality, blessedness, religiousness (see corresponding adjectives at HOLY): devoutness or devotion, piousness or piety (see corresponding adjectives at DEVOUT): *goodness, virtue, rectitude