Holy Writ

English

Alternative forms

• holy writ, Holy Writs

Etymology

From Middle English Holi Writ, hali writ, from Old English hāliġ ġewrit (“scripture”, literally “holy writing”), equivalent to holy +‎ writ (“scripture, writing”).

Noun

Holy Writ (usually uncountable, plural Holy Writs)

1. The Bible.
2. The sacred writings of the Christian religion.
3. The sacred writings of any religion.
4. Unquestionable truth.

   Synonym: gospel truth

   to accept something as Holy Writ; to take something as Holy Writ

Synonyms

(Bible):

• Holy Bible
• Holy Book
• Holy Scripture
• Sacred Scripture

Translations

Bible

• Bulgarian: Светото писание n (Svetoto pisanie)
• Burmese: သမ္မာကျမ်းစာ (samma-kyam:ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 聖經／圣经 (zh) (shèngjīng)

• Finnish: Pyhä kirja
• French: Saintes Écritures (fr) f pl, Bible (fr) f
• German: Heilige Schrift (de) f
• Greek: Αγία Γραφή (el) f (Agía Grafí)
• Hungarian: Szentírás
• Japanese: 聖書 (ja) (せいしょ, seisho)
• Korean: 성경 (ko) (seonggyeong), 성서 (ko) (seongseo)
• Portuguese: Sagrada Escritura f, Bíblia (pt) f
• Russian: Свяще́нное писа́ние n (Svjaščénnoje pisánije), би́блия (ru) f (bíblija)
• Spanish: Sagrada Escritura (es) f, Sagradas Escrituras f pl, Biblia (es) f

Christian sacred writings

• Finnish: pyhät kirjoitukset
• Greek: Αγία Γραφή (el) f (Agía Grafí)
• Spanish: Sagradas Escrituras f pl

any sacred writings

• Estonian: pühakiri
• Finnish: pyhät kirjoitukset
• Greek: ιερό κείμενο n (ieró keímeno)
• Portuguese: texto sacro/sagrado m
• Punjabi:

  Gurmukhi: ਕਤੇਬ f pl (kateb)

  Shahmukhi: کَتیب f pl (kateb)

• Tocharian B: śāstär

writings of unchallenged authority — see gospel truth

Further reading

• “Holy Writ”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “Holy Writ”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “Holy Writ” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “Holy Writ” (US) / “Holy Writ” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.

Anagrams

• worthily