How to Use original sin in a Sentence

original sin

noun
  • That choice, the original sin, is why our parents were thrown out of paradise.
    — Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, The New Yorker, 18 Jan. 2021
  • Adultery is not a very original sin, even in the White House.
    — Joseph Epstein, WSJ, 26 Dec. 2018
  • Our societies did not begin that way, and that is our original sin.
    — Sahil Handa, National Review, 13 June 2019
  • It’s done in the saddest way, with the original sin of patricide.
    — Ben Rosenstock, Vulture, 12 Feb. 2024
  • For privilege is a static state into which you are born, stained by original sin.
    — Lionel Shriver, Harper's magazine, 25 Nov. 2019
  • Ozymandias, did penance for his original sin, saving the world by killing millions.
    — Brian Lowry, CNN, 15 Dec. 2019
  • Both the university and the public thought was his original sin.
    — Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press, 29 June 2018
  • The whole idea of a convent is about creating a guilt-free space; a small paradise where the original sin doesn’t exist.
    — Marta Balaga, Variety, 25 Sep. 2021
  • Genestoux has been hard at work trying to redeem this original sin with a service called Unlock.
    — Jeff John Roberts, Fortune, 6 Oct. 2022
  • Sforno argues that the confession is not directly linked to the tithe process, but rather with the original sin of the golden calf.
    — Rabbi Avi Weiss, sun-sentinel.com, 31 Aug. 2020
  • Her concept of gravity draws on both East and West, on karma and original sin.
    — Meghan O’Gieblyn, Harpers Magazine, 30 June 2026
  • This country isn’t trying to atone for the original sin of slavery because it’s being overrun by racists yelling slurs in the streets.
    — Los Angeles Times, 5 June 2020
  • The original sin was the decision to support the French rulers in Vietnam.
    — New York Times, 9 June 2021
  • The illusion that this leads to good economic development is the original sin of this farce.
    — Michael Taylor, San Antonio Express-News, 23 Feb. 2022
  • Or was there an original sin in Buckler’s drawing of a boundary around Boerum Hill in the first place?
    — Jonathan Lethem, The New Yorker, 21 Aug. 2023
  • Seforno argues that the confession is not directly linked to the tithe process, but rather with the original sin of the golden calf.
    — Rabbi Avi Weiss, Jewish Journal, 5 Sep. 2017
  • Having spent much of her life being forced to pray for salvation from original sin, Carrie is set free by her unholy skill.
    — Rafaela Bassili, The Atlantic, 18 Sep. 2024
  • As a once-Catholic, the Protestant emphasis on original sin baffles me.
    — Cyrena Touros, Harper's BAZAAR, 28 Mar. 2021
  • In their hands, America’s original sin is settled by the wishful effort to wash the nation clean.
    — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., TIME, 15 Apr. 2024
  • To the people of the region, those neocolonial dictates have acquired a mythic status as a kind of original sin.
    — Robert F. Worth, The New York Review of Books, 22 Sep. 2020
  • Nothing will ever undo the original sin, and devoting your life to ruining someone else’s is a loss for both of you.
    — Paula L. Woods, Los Angeles Times, 19 Mar. 2026
  • For Catholics, baptism is connected with huge concepts, including original sin and the fate of the soul.
    — Washington Post, 8 Nov. 2020
  • The signs seemed to remind visitors to bend down and retie their shoelaces, perhaps to gather a promising souvenir or two of the original sin in the process.
    — New York Times, 3 Aug. 2021
  • Religious concepts like original sin remind us that people stray from the path of goodness as part of human nature.
    — Tara Sonenshine, Baltimore Sun, 9 Feb. 2026
  • That, of course, was not the whole truth; America’s original sin of slavery would cast a terrible shadow.
    — Roger Cohen, New York Times, 18 Dec. 2017
  • This is just the latest attempt from Google and its partners to address Android's original sin.
    — Ryan Whitwam, Ars Technica, 25 Feb. 2025
  • But the one issue that impacts more things, in more ways, on more days, is the cost of housing, California’s original sin.
    — Sacramento Bee Staff, Sacbee.com, 8 Jan. 2026
  • The original sin here is that the Tories insist on treating trade as a Brexit bargaining chip.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 12 Oct. 2017
  • During a damage control meeting, the church decides that embracing the concept of original sin might be the only way to save face.
    — Dani Di Placido, Forbes, 7 Dec. 2021
  • But the company’s original sin was to borrow against its own FTT token, which was held up by nothing but air.
    — Andy Kessler, WSJ, 27 Nov. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'original sin.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: