Sinner

How to spell sinner

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sinner

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sinner mean?

1. nounA person who does wrong, especially against moral or religious law.

Sinner in a sentence

• The preacher urged every sinner in the room to seek forgiveness.

• In the old novel the repentant sinner confesses his crimes to the priest.

Where does sinner come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The core of this word is the noun 'sin', which comes from Old English 'synn', meaning an offence, a wrongdoing, or a moral fault, especially against religious or divine law. That Old English word goes back to a Proto-Germanic root that is also linked to ideas of guilt and being 'truly' at fault, and some scholars connect it to a Latin word meaning 'it is true' in the sense of an admitted offence. The agent ending '-er', also of Germanic origin, was attached to turn 'sin' into a noun for the person who commits one, giving 'sinner'. The doubled 'n' is the simple result of joining a root ending in 'n' to a suffix beginning in a vowel, so the single 'n' of 'sin' becomes a double 'nn' before '-er', which is the small spelling point worth remembering. The word has been part of English religious and moral vocabulary since the medieval period and has changed little in form or meaning over the centuries.

How the word is built

• sin (wrongdoing, from Old English synn)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)