English Explanatory Dictionary

heathenism

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The state of being, or behavior and thought, of heathens.

Word forms

heathenism heathenisms

Etymology

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).

Synonyms

heathenry heathendom heathenship paganism
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