profane – English adjective declension

English adjective forms of profane

Adjective: profane

Comparison Forms

Synthetic

Comparativeprofaner
Superlativeprofanest

Perifrastic

Comparativemore profane
Superlativemost profane

Sample Sentences

  • Nothing is profane that serveth to the use of holy things. [1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5):]
  • profane authors
  • A sonnet in praise of Rome was accepted as the effusion of genius and gratitude; and after the whole procession had visited the Vatican, the profane wreath was suspended before the shrine. [1781, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume II, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC:]
  • The sacred is the emotional force which connects the part to the whole; the profane or the secular is that which has been broken off from, or has fallen off, its emotional bond to the universe. [1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 102:]
  • a profane person, word, oath, or tongue
  • the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane [1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Timothy 1:9:]
  • When asked to explain why he became a landlord, he told the Archbishop of York it was so he could close the pub on Sundays, and suppress the profane language and singing that came through the bar windows. [1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 102:]

Adjectives inflected like profane

serene, severe, secure, sedate, wheelie, simple, complete, fulsome, sprightlie, discrete, plosive, bizarre, brusque, brittle, wholesome, sincere, shystie, loveable, prophane, terrible, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)

Etymology

From Middle French prophane, from Latin profānus (“not religious, unclean”), from pro- (“instead of”) + fānum (“temple”). See: Latin Adjectives 'profānus'.

Verbs referencing "profane"

Finnish Adjectives profaani.