holy grail

ho·ly grail

H h

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [hoh-lee greyl]
- /ˈhoʊ li greɪl/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [hoh-lee greyl]
- /ˈhoʊ li greɪl/

Definitions of holy grail words

noun holy grail grail (def 1). 1
noun holy grail religion, mythology: sacred cup 1
noun holy grail sth much sought and prized 1
noun holy grail (in medieval legend) the bowl used by Jesus at the Last Supper. It was allegedly brought to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea, where it became the quest of many knights 0
noun holy grail (in modern spirituality) a symbol of the spiritual wholeness that leads a person to union with the divine 0
noun holy grail any desired ambition or goal 0

See all 9 definitions of holy grail

Information block about the term

Origin of holy grail

First appearance:

before 1580

One of the 35% oldest English words

First recorded in 1580-90

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Holy grail

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Holy grail

holy grail popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 31% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.

According to our data about 73% of words is more used. This is a rare but used term. It occurs in the pages of specialized literature and in the speech of educated people.

holy grail usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer