sacrifice
sac·ri·fice/ˈsæk.ɹɪˌfaɪs/noun, verb
sacrifice is spelled S-A-C-R-I-F-I-C-E, 3 syllables: sac·ri·fice. The wrong spelling people search most is sacrafice: about 340 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 11 of all searches for the word. Sacrifice is a noun meaning “Originally, the killing (and often burning) of a human being or an animal as an offering to a deity; later…”. The plural of sacrifice is sacrifices.
How many letters and syllables are in sacrifice?
| Letters | 9: S-A-C-R-I-F-I-C-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: sac·ri·fice |
| In writing | 19 times per million words; the 4,365th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, sacrafice, about 340 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell sacrifice?
Sacrifice is spelled S-A-C-R-I-F-I-C-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 11 of the searches for sacrifice in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is sacrifice?
Sacrifice appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,365th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce sacrifice?
- UK /ˈsæk.ɹɪ.faɪs/
- UK /-faɪz/
- US /ˈsæk.ɹɪˌfaɪs/
Sacrifice has 3 syllables, split sac·ri·fice in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-sacrifice.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of sacrifice
- sacrifices plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- sacrificing participle, present
- sacrificed participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sacrifice mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
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.
- 2
A human being or an animal, or a physical object or immaterial thing (see etymology 1 sense 1.3), offered to a deity.
- 3
The offering of devotion, penitence, prayer, thanksgiving, etc., to a deity.
- 4
Jesus Christ's voluntary offering of himself to God the Father to be crucified as atonement for the sins of humankind.
- 5
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.
- 6
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.
the sacrifice of one’s spare time in order to volunteer
- 7
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”).
- 8
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.
verb
- 1
To offer (a human being or an animal, or an object) to a deity.
- 2
To destroy or kill (a human being or an animal); specifically (sciences), to kill (an animal) for a scientific experiment or test.
- 3
To destroy or surrender (something) for the sake of something else regarded as more urgent or valuable.
Venison has many advantages over meat from factory farms, although it still requires a hunter to sacrifice the life of a deer.
- 4
Of a batter: to advance (one or more runners on base) by batting the ball so it can be fielded, placing the batter out but with insufficient time to put the runner(s) out.
- 5
datedslangTo sell (something) at less than its value, thus incurring a monetary loss.
- 6
To intentionally allow (a piece) to be captured by the opponent in order to improve one's position in the game.
- 7
To offer a human being or an animal, or an object, to a deity.
- 8
Of a batter: to bat the ball so that it can be fielded, placing the batter out but allowing one or more runners on base to advance.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sacrifice in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | sacrifice, offrande , sacrifier |
| German | opfern , Opfer |
| Portuguese | sacrificar , sacrifício |
| Spanish | sacrificar , sacrificio |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.