# sacrifice

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈsæk.ɹɪ.faɪs/ · frequency rank #4,409

## Definitions
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.
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.
9. A monetary loss incurred by selling something at less than its value; also, the thing thus sold.
10. An act of intentionally allowing one's piece to be captured by the opponent in order to improve one's position in the game.

## Etymology
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *seh₂k-
Proto-Indo-European *-rós
Proto-Indo-European *sh₂krós
Proto-Italic *sakros
Old Latin sacros
Latin sacerder.
Latin sacrum
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-der.
Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁k-yé-ti
Proto-Italic *θakjō
Proto-Italic *fakjō
Latin faciō
Proto-Indo-European *-yós
Proto-Italic *-ios
Old Latin -ios
Latin -ius
Latin -ium
Latin sacrificiumlbor.
Old French sacrifisebor.
Middle English sacrifice
English sacrifice
From Middle English sacrifice (“act of offering a life or object to a deity; the life or object so offered”), from Anglo-Norman sacrefiz, and Old French sacrifice, sacrifise (modern French sacrifice), from Latin sacrificium (“something offered to a deity, sacrifice”), from sacrum (“sacrifice, sacrificial rite”) + faciō (“to do, to make”) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns). The noun sacrum is the nominalized neuter of the adjective sacer (“devoted to a deity for sacrifice; holy, sacred”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂k- (“ceremony, ritual; to make sacred”), and the verb faciō is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to do; to place, put”). Related Latin formations include sacrificus (“of or pertaining to sacrifice, sacrificial”) and sacrificō (“to make a sacrifice”).
Cognates
* Italian sagrifizio
* Occitan sacrifici
* Portuguese sacrificio
* Spanish sacrificio

## Easily confused with
- **sacrifices** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sacrifice-vs-sacrifices)
- **sacrificed** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sacrifice-vs-sacrificed)

## Common misspellings (13)
`ascrifice`, `saccrifice`, `sacirfice`, `sacrfiice`, `sacrifcie`, `sacriffice`, `sacrificce`, `sacrifiec`, `sacriifce`, `sacrrifice`, `sarcifice`, `scarifice`, `ssacrifice`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/sacrifice