This study seeks to chart a course through the vexed question of eucharistic sacrifice by drawing attention not to historical disputes nor to doctrinal formulations but to a more basic issue: the unstable nature of sacrifice as a concept. Drawing upon the field of cognitive linguistics to analyze assumptions about sacrifice in four recent bodies of work by contemporary theologians—both liturgical scholars and others—the author argues that sacrifice is an example of a ‘contested category’: one in which different prototypical understandings compete with one another, with no single definition able to claim preeminence. Using cognitive linguistics to illuminate the complex structure of sacrifice can highlight both points of convergence and ongoing areas of disagreement, contributing to greater mutual understanding and potential ecumenical reconciliation.