venial sin

noun

, Roman Catholic Church.

1. a transgression against the law of God that does not deprive the soul of divine grace either because it is a minor offense or because it was committed without full understanding of its seriousness or without full consent of the will.

venial sin

noun

1. Christianity a sin regarded as involving only a partial loss of grace Compare mortal sin

Word History and Origins

Origin of venial sin¹

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400

Example Sentences

In baseball, bunting to break up a perfect game is a mortal and not a venial sin.

From Washington Post

Feeling tired and exasperated and overburdened a few weeks ago after working on a long and complicated story and getting very little sleep, I sourly informed Twitter that I felt a compulsion and a God-given right to commit a venial sin.

From Washington Post

“If an ill-considered tweet is a venial sin for Acosta at CNN, this is a mortal sin for Todd at NBC. This was no careless tweet, but an airing made long after the false account was flagged during the CNN controversy,” Turley wrote.

From Fox News

But if you’re a tech founder and you watch Elliott wage an ugly proxy fight to get rid of Jack Dorsey for the venial sin of working half-days at his company, the experience might lead you to insist on dual-class stock in your own IPO.

From The Verge

If you died with a venial sin on your soul you could not enter heaven until the sin was absolved by prayers or rosaries or masses from your family on earth.

From Literature