These words all refer to irreverent or improper acts. Desecration is the opposite of consecration. It indicates the dishonoring of something sacred by wrongful use or irreverent treatment and it commonly implies a conscious or intentional act. Specifically, the word often points to the deliberate degrading, damaging or destroying of a religious building or place: The stabling of horses in a church would be a desecration ; the desecration of Jewish synagogues and cemeteries by the Nazis. Outside a religious context, desecration may suggest the contemptuous abuse of anything that is held dear or regarded as sacred: a desecration of our country’s flag. Profanation is a milder word than desecration and is less commonly used. It may or may not involve physical abuse of a sacred place but focuses on a lack of proper respect or a callous or shocking act of irreverence: the profanation of a shrine by thoughtless sightseers; a cult that considered it a profanation to visit its temple without a full day of fasting. Literally, profanation suggests a reduction of something sacred to the level of the secular; but the word has few general uses outside the religious context. Sacrilege comes from a Latin word meaning temple robber. In a theological sense, it may imply the improper use of a sacrament, as by one unfit to give or receive it. In a broader sense, it often points to an irreligious or taboo act that profanes the sacred character person, place or thing in a shocking way: The primitive tribe considered it a sacrilege to utter the sacred name. Sacrilege is even less concrete than profanation , though, since the irreverence involved can consist of a thought as well as an act and need not occur within religious surroundings: It was deemed a sacrilege to question the witch doctor’s teachings even for a moment.

Defilement suggests the dirtying or profanation of something that should be cherished or kept pure. In a religious sense it may indicate the act of rendering something ceremonially (though not literally) unclean the defilement of the temple by the presence in it of infidels. In a broader sense, it may indicate either a physical or spiritual sullying: the defilement of justice by prejudiced and corrupt officials. Debasement is less often used in a religious sense and does not suggest befouling or pollution. Instead, it focuses on a lowering in character, quality or worth: determined to tolerate no debasement , however slight, of the club’s standards. Applied to persons, debasement may indicate a public humiliation, as though verbal attack: the accusations he shouted at her during the formal dinner made his debasement of her complete.

Like desecration and profanation , violation may apply to the irreverent treatment of a sacred thing or holy place: the violation of the shrine by souvenir hunters; the vandals?violation of the sanctuary. But this word more often carries legal connotations than religious ones, suggesting the breaking of a law or a failure to abide by the terms of a binding contract: a violation of the tenancy clause. Outside this specific context it can be used of a sexual attack: medical tests to determine if there had been a sexual violation of the woman. In its most general sense, it can refer to any outrage of decency: a violation of his sense of fair play.