heathenism
heathenism · heathenisms
The state of being, or behavior and thought, of heathensThe state of being, or behavior and thought, of heathens.
Meaning
1 senses(countable, uncountable)The state of being, or behavior and thought, of heathens.
Near-synonym: paganism
More definitions
- any of various religions other than Christianity or Judaism or Islamism
Translations
1 languagesOrigin
From heathen + -ism, coined in the 17th century in place of the then-obsolete heathendom.From heathen + -ism, coined in the 17th century in place of the then-obsolete heathendom. First attested in Francis Bacon's Of the advancement of learning (1605), II. xiv. §9: "The heresy of the Anthropomorphites … and the opinion of Epicurus, answerable to the same in heathenism, who supposed the gods to be in human shape" (OED).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: heathenisms| Singular | heathenism |
|---|---|
| Plural | heathenisms |
regular
Synonyms
5 synonymsClose in meaning
- any of various religions other than Christianity or Judaism or Islamism:paganismpagan religion
Lessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable