• (British) IPA: /pɹəˈfeɪn/

profane (comparative profaner, superlative profanest)

1. Unclean; ritually impure; unholy, desecrating a holy place or thing.

   • Nothing is profane that serveth to holy things.

2. Not sacred or holy, unconsecrated; relating to non-religious matters, secular.

   profane authors

   • 1781, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume 2

     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.

3. Treating sacred things with contempt, disrespect, irreverence, or scorn; blasphemous, impious.
4. Irreverent in language; taking the name of God in vain

   a profane person, word, oath, or tongue

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, 1 Timotyh Timotyh-Chapter-1/#9 1:9 ↗:

     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

• (obscene) vulgar, inappropriate, obscene, debased, uncouth, offensive, ignoble, mean, lewd
• secular
• temporal
• worldly
• unsanctified
• unhallowed
• unholy
• irreligious
• irreverent
• ungodly
• wicked
• godless
• impious

• holy
• sacred

• French: impur, profane, sale
• Russian: нечести́вый
• Spanish: sacrílego

• French: profane
• German: weltlich
• Italian: sconsacrato, profano, secolare, blasfemo
• Portuguese: profano
• Russian: непосвящённый
• Spanish: profano

• French: sacrilège
• Italian: sacrilego, profano, empio
• Russian: богоху́льный
• Spanish: profano

• Russian: богоху́льный
• Spanish: blasfemo

profane (plural profanes)

1. A person or thing that is profane.
   • 1796, Matthew Lewis, The Monk, Folio Society 1985, p. 244:

     The nuns were employed in religious duties established in honour of St Clare, and to which no profane was ever admitted.

2. (freemasonry) A person not a Mason.

profane (profanes, present participle profaning; past and past participle profaned)

1. (transitive) To violate (something sacred); to treat with abuse, irreverence, obloquy, or contempt; to desecrate

   One should not profane the name of God.

   to profane the Scriptures

2. (transitive) To put to a wrong or unworthy use; to debase; to abuse; to defile.

• (violate something sacred) defile, unhallow; see also Thesaurus:desecrate
• (put to a wrong or unworthy use) abase, adulterate, degrade, demean, misapply, misuse, pervert

• (violate something sacred) consecrate, sanctify; see also Thesaurus:consecrate

• French: profaner
• Italian: profanare
• Spanish: profanar, profanar