Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

sacrifice

/ˈsæk.ɹɪˌfaɪs/

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.29 in modern English

Syllables
sac-ri-fice
IPA
/ˈsæk.ɹɪˌfaɪs/
16
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Originally, the killing (and often burning) of a human being or an animal as an offering to a deity; later, also the offering of an object to a deity.

Countable; Uncountable

noun

A human being or an animal, or a physical object or immaterial thing (see etymology 1 sense 1.3), offered to a deity.

Countable; Uncountable

noun

The offering of devotion, penitence, prayer, thanksgiving, etc., to a deity.

Countable; Uncountable

noun

Jesus Christ's voluntary offering of himself to God the Father to be crucified as atonement for the sins of humankind.

Countable; Uncountable

noun

The rite of Holy Communion or the Mass, regarded as (Protestantism) an offering of thanksgiving to God for Christ's crucifixion, or (Roman Catholicism) a perpetual re-presentation of Christ's sacrificial offering.

Countable; Uncountable

noun

The destruction or surrender of anything for the sake of something else regarded as more urgent or valuable; also, the thing destroyed or surrendered for this purpose.

Countable; Uncountable

noun

Ellipsis of sacrifice bunt or sacrifice hit (“a play in which the batter intentionally hits the ball softly with a hands-spread batting stance at the cost of an out to advance one or more runners”).

Countable; Uncountable

noun

In full sacrifice bid: a bid of a contract which is unlikely to be fulfilled, that a player makes in the hope that they will incur fewer penalty points than the points likely to be gained by opponents in making their contract.

Countable; Uncountable

Example Sentences

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *seh₂k- Proto-Indo-European *-rós Proto-Indo-European *sh₂krós Proto-Italic *sakros Archaic Latin sakros Old Latin sacros Old Latin *sakr̥s Old Latin *sakerr Latin sacerder. Latin sacrum Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁k- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁kyéti Proto-Italic *θakjō Proto-Italic *fakjō Latin faciō Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -iusnom. Latin -ium Latin sacrificiumlbor. Old French sacrifisebor. Middle English sacrifice English sacrifice From Middle English sacrifice (“act of offering a life or object to a deity; the life or object so offered”), from Anglo-Norman sacrefiz, and Old French sacrifice, sacrifise (modern French sacrifice), from Latin sacrificium (“something offered to a deity, sacrifice”), from sacrum (“sacrifice, sacrificial rite”) + faciō (“to do, to make”) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns). The noun sacrum is the nominalized neuter of the adjective sacer (“devoted to a deity for sacrifice; holy, sacred”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂k- (“ceremony, ritual; to make sacred”), and the verb faciō is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to do; to place, put”). Related Latin formations include sacrificus (“of or pertaining to sacrifice, sacrificial”) and sacrificō (“to make a sacrifice”). Displaced native Old English blōt and hūsl. Cognates * Italian sagrifizio * Occitan sacrifici * Portuguese sacrificio * Spanish sacrificio

Origin

Word Breakdown

  • Root: *seh₂k-, sacrifice, sacrefiz, sacrificium, *dʰeh₁-, sacrificen

Regional Pronunciation

  • American English: /ˈsæk.ɹɪˌfaɪs/
  • British English: /ˈsæk.ɹɪ.faɪs/

Usage

Inflected Forms

sacrifices (plural) sacrifices (present, singular) sacrificing (participle, present) sacrificed (participle, past) sacrificed (past) no-table-tags (table tags) glossary (inflection template) sacrificed (first person, past) sacrificest (archaic, present) sacrificed (past, second person) sacrificedst (archaic, past) sacrificeth (archaic, present)

Derived Forms

nonsacrifice presacrifice pseudosacrifice resacrifice sac sacrificeless sacrificable sacrificeable sacrificed sacrificer sacrificing sacrificingly

Phrases

human sacrifice sacrifice area sacrifice bunt sacrifice fly sacrifice hit sacrifice zone salary sacrifice self-sacrifice

Frequently Paired Words

nonsacrificial sacred sacrificial sacrificially sacrificialness

Synonyms

save Molochise Molochize forfeit forfeiture ritual killing give

Rhymes With

nice price ice on ice advice twice de-ice vice cold as ice device rice precise

Questions

How do you pronounce sacrifice?
The recorded pronunciation is /ˈsæk.ɹɪˌfaɪs/.
What does sacrifice mean?
Originally, the killing (and often burning) of a human being or an animal as an offering to a deity; later, also the offering of an object to a deity.
Where does sacrifice come from?
It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce sacrifice

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “sacrifice”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈsæk.ɹɪˌfaɪs/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “sacrifice”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “sacrifice” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.