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Glite Dictionary
🛟 Rescue or protection 💰 A reduction 🙏 Bringing salvation 🐿️ Thrifty
saving

saving

9.5
Bringing rescue from sin and spiritual harm
  • adjective
  • /ˈseɪvɪŋ/
  • Formal
translation icon : salvador
  • The pastor spoke about the saving grace of forgiveness during the Sunday sermon.

So if that's their their saving grace, you know, give me a break.

Examples

  • Many people find that attending religious services is a saving experience that strengthens their faith.

  • But in their mind, this is saving and protecting Scientology.

  • Through acts of kindness, she believes she is participating in saving souls.

Synonyms

salvation
vssaving
  • Specialized
145 7.9

Being saved from sin and its punishment in a religion

highlights causing spiritual rescue rather than being in the rescued state
redemption
vssaving
  • Specialized
119 7.4

Being saved from sin or evil by a saviour

focuses on bringing about spiritual rescue rather than the saviour's act
deliverance
vssaving
24 7.4

Being rescued from danger or harm

applies specifically to spiritual rescue from sin rather than general rescue

Antonyms

sin
776 2.5

An act that breaks a religious or moral rule

damnation
  • Literature
38 9.4

Being punished forever after death for sins

Compounds

daylight saving
  • US
11 3.0

Setting clocks forward one hour during some months to have more daylight in the evening

saving grace
  • Informal
7 4.4

A good quality that makes someone or something acceptable despite faults

face-saving
1 6.0

An action to help someone avoid embarrassment

daylight-saving time
  • UK
1 3.1

People turn clocks forward one hour in summer to make evenings lighter

energy-saving light bulb
1 2.5

A bulb that uses less electricity than old bulbs, for example LED bulbs

saving grace
  • Formal
1 8.5

A gift from God that makes a person holy and helps them be saved

time-saving
1 3.3

Less time needed to finish a task or something that makes a task take less time

energy-saving light
2.9

A light bulb that uses less electricity, like an LED or a compact fluorescent

Surface Forms

saving positive

Morphology

saving = save (transparent) = save + ing

Standard participial/adjectival formation from the verb 'save' (+ -ing) yielding 'causing or bringing about salvation', which a B1 learner can derive.

Etymology

Saving comes from the Latin root salvare, which means 'to save', and from salus, 'health' or 'safety'; think of salvation as the same idea. So saving in a religious sense means bringing someone to spiritual safety or health.