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say it: uhn-HOH-lee
unholy is an adjective meaning "not hallowed or consecrated". It carries 3 recorded senses.
not hallowed or consecrated
extremely evil or cruel; expressive of cruelty or befitting hell
“something demonic in him--something that could be cruel”
“fires lit up a diabolic scene”
“diabolical sorcerers under the influence of devils”
“a fiendish despot”
“hellish torture”
“infernal instruments of war”
“satanic cruelty”
“unholy grimaces”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for unholy come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.