Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A person who holds controversial opinions, especially one who publicly dissents from the officially accepted dogma of the Roman Catholic Church.
- adjective Heretical.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One who holds and persistently maintains an opinion or a doctrine at variance with the accepted standards of any school or party, and rejected or condemned by it; one who rejects a generally accepted belief.
- noun Specifically, in theology, a professed believer who adopts and persistently maintains religious opinions contrary to the accepted standards of his church. See
heresy , 2. - noun Synonyms Heretic, Schismatic, Sectary, Dissenter, Nonconformist. Heretic is an opprobrious epithet for a professed believer who holds religious opinions contrary to the established or dominant beliefs. A schismatic is one who seeks to sunder or divide into different organizations or parties those who are of essentially the same religious faith. A sectary or sectarian is one who sets the welfare of his own sect or denomination above that of the church universal, often pushing its interests at the cost of the general Christian welfare. This word has been much used opprobriously of those who stand out against an original or more powerful organization. A dissenter or nonconformist is one who dissents from an established religion, or does not conform to it; specifically and in actual use these words apply almost exclusively to those Protestants in Great Britain who worship apart from the Established Church of England, as the Presbyterians, Baptists, and Independents.
- Pertaining to heresy; believing heresy.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who holds to a heresy; one who believes some doctrine contrary to the established faith or prevailing religion.
- noun (R. C. Ch.) One who having made a profession of Christian belief, deliberately and pertinaciously refuses to believe one or more of the articles of faith “determined by the authority of the universal church.”
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Someone who, in the opinion of others, believes contrary to the fundamental
tenets of areligion he claims to belong to. - adjective archaic
Heretical ; of or pertaining toheresy or heretics.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a person who holds unorthodox opinions in any field (not merely religion)
- noun a person who holds religious beliefs in conflict with the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The root meaning of the word heretic is “able to choose,” a fun fact I thought about a lot in 2002 when we stayed at the Hotel Ponte Sisto in Rome.
Knowing Jesse Marianne Leone 2010
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The root meaning of the word heretic is “able to choose,” a fun fact I thought about a lot in 2002 when we stayed at the Hotel Ponte Sisto in Rome.
Knowing Jesse Marianne Leone 2010
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It may be well to note here the way in which the term heretic is to be understood in this declaration.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery 1840-1916 1913
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If by the term heretic we are to imply moral guilt, I am not justified in applying it to any Christian, unless his doctrines are positively sinful, or there is something wicked, either in the way of dishonesty or bitterness, in his manner of maintaining them.
The Christian Life Its Course, Its Hindrances, And Its Helps Thomas Arnold 1818
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BTW, you're last post used the word heretic, which is inconsistent with your previous posts.
Those contemptuous atheists... why won't they be kind? Ann Althouse 2006
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RE: Matt, your word "heretic" is such a great choice because with AGW it truly seems, like most religions, to be those with faith against those without.
Freeman Dyson on Global Warming, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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Of course, the label "heretic" is usually involved when that happens.
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Of course, the label "heretic" is usually involved when that happens.
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It is precisely because the Harvard deans of this world fear the opposite is true that they engage in heretic shaming.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Be Careful. Trust No-One. Shut Up. 2010
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And yes, one more ranting heretic is exactly what the internet needs!
A Midwinter Night's Dream Lou Anders 2009
raghuveer0999 commented on the word heretic
like pappu
April 12, 2013
mohitanand commented on the word heretic
noun: a person who holds unorthodox opinions in any field (not merely religion)
Though everybody at the gym told Mikey to do cardio before weights, Mikey was a heretic and always did the reverse.
October 19, 2016