Sin.
Synonyms:
| crime, | fault, | misdeed, | vice, |
| criminality, | guilt, | offense, | viciousness, |
| delinquency, | ill-doing, | transgression, | wickedness, |
| depravity, | immorality, | ungodliness, | wrong, |
| evil, | iniquity, | unrighteousness, | wrong-doing. |
Sin is any lack of holiness, any defect of moral purity and truth, whether in heart or life, whether of commission or omission. "All unrighteousness is sin," 1 John v, 17. Transgression, as its etymology indicates, is the stepping over a specific enactment, whether of God or man, ordinarily by overt act, but in the broadest sense, in volition or desire. Sin may be either act or state; transgression is always an act, mental or physical. Crime is often used for a flagrant violation of right, but in the technical sense denotes specific violation of human law. Guilt is desert of and exposure to punishment because of sin. Depravity denotes not any action, but a perverted moral condition from which any act of sin may proceed. Sin in the generic sense, as denoting a state of heart, is synonymous with depravity; in the specific sense, as in the expression a sin, the term may be synonymous with transgression, crime, offense, misdeed, etc., or may denote some moral activity that could not be characterized by terms so positive. Immorality denotes outward violation of the moral law. Sin is thus the broadest word, and immorality next in scope; all crimes, properly so called, and all immoralities, are sins; but there may be sin, as ingratitude, which is neither crime, transgression, nor immorality; and there may be immorality which is not crime, as falsehood. Compare CRIMINAL.
Antonyms:
| blamelessness, | goodness, | integrity, | rectitude, | sinlessness, |
| excellence, | holiness, | morality, | right, | uprightness, |
| godliness, | innocence, | purity, | righteousness, | virtue. |
Compare synonyms for VIRTUE.