anathema
Syllables: a·na·the·ma/əˈnæθəmə/
anathema noun: a ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, often accompanied by excommunication; something denounced as accursed.
Noun
anathema (plural anathemas or anathemata)
- A ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, often accompanied by excommunication; something denounced as accursed.
- Something which is vehemently disliked by somebody.
- Even three years ago, the thought of spending two hours, let alone a whole day, without my mobile would have been anathema.2015 January 18, Monty Munford, “What’s the point of carrying a mobile phone nowadays?”, in The Daily Telegraph
- The actor, who prizes mystery, hated being gossip fodder. “That was anathema to him,” said his sister Martha Fiennes, a filmmaker, “and he just hated the curiosity into his life.”2022 October 22, Maureen Dowd, “Ralph Fiennes, Master of Monsters”, in The New York Times
- Synonyms:
- antipathy, bête noire, bugbear
- An imprecation; a curse; a malediction.
- I trembled at his ringing wealth
Of manifold anathemas […]1920, Edward Arlington Robinson, “The Wandering Jew”, in The Three Taverns - That was a curse from which no flight was possible: the anathema of a man who had once known holiness.2002, Joseph O'Conner, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 30
- I trembled at his ringing wealth
- Any person or thing anathematized, or cursed by ecclesiastical authority to unending punishment.
- If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 16:22
- Ἆνάθεμα, accurẛed, חרם, which the Septuagint renders Anathema, ẛignifies Perẛons or Things devoted to Deẛtruction and Extermination. The Jewiẛh Nation were now an Anathema, deẛtin'd to Deẛtruction. St. Paul to expreẛs his Affection to them, ẛays, he could wiẛh to ẛave them from it, to become an...1707, John Locke, “The Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans”, in An Essay for Understanding St. Paul's Epistles, by Consulting St. Paul Himself, Section VIII
anathema meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
anathema in Urdu
- anathema
- بددعا baddu'ā
anathema in Bengali
- ধর্মীয় অভিশাপ, সমাজচ্যুত করার ঘোষণা, অভিশপ্ত ব্যক্তি
anathema in Malayalam
- hateful, abhorrent, repugnant
- വെറുക്കുന്നത്, അറപ്പുള്ളത്, കടുത്ത വെറുപ്പുള്ളത്, യോജിക്കാത്തത്, വിദ്വേഷിക്കുന്നത്, എതിർപ്പുള്ളത്
- excommunication, curse, ban
- പുറന്തള്ളൽ, ശാപം, ജാതിഭ്രംശം, ജ്ഞാതിശാസ്യം, ജാതിഭ്രഷ്ട്, പതിതത്വം
anathema in Kannada
- ಬಹಿಷ್ಕಾರ, ಹೊರಹಾಕುವಿಕೆ, ದೂರವಿಡುವಿಕೆ, ಮುಡಿಪು, ಮೀಸಲು, ಶಪ್ತ
More languagesFewer languages
- anathema in Arabic
- مُلاعنة, لَعْنَة laʕna
- anathema in Vietnamese
- sự rút phép thông công, a-na-them
Examples of anathema in a sentence
- “Assumptions are anathema to communication.” “You're anathema.2024 October 31, Stephanie Amante-Ritter, “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel” (6:00 from the start), in Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 5...
- Ἆνάθεμα, accurẛed, חרם, which the Septuagint renders Anathema, ẛignifies Perẛons or Things devoted to Deẛtruction and Extermination.1707, John Locke, “The Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans”, in An Essay for Understanding St. Paul's Epistles, by Consulting St. Paul...
- If any one refuses to confess that the Word of God the Father is united in hypostasis to flesh, and is one Christ with His own flesh, the same being at once both God and man, let him be anathema.1885, “The Anathemas of Cyril in Opposition to Nestorius”, in Philip Schaff, editor, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (II), volume III:
Synonyms of anathema
Forms of anathema
| plural | anathemas |
|---|---|
| plural | anathemata |
Origin of anathema
Borrowed from Late Latin anathema (“curse, person cursed, offering”), itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀνάθεμα (anáthema, “something dedicated, especially dedicated to eternal damnation”), from ἀνατίθημι (anatíthēmi, “to set upon, offer as a votive gift”), from ἀνά (aná, “upon”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put, place”). The Ancient Greek term was influenced by Hebrew חרם (herem), leading to the sense of "accursed," especially in Ecclesiastical writers.
Words formed from anathema
Questions about anathema
- What does anathema mean?
- Anathema means a ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, often accompanied by excommunication; something denounced as accursed.
- What is anathema in Urdu?
- Anathema in Urdu is بددعا (baddu'ā). See Anathema meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use anathema in a sentence?
- “Assumptions are anathema to communication.” “You're anathema.
- What part of speech is anathema?
- Anathema is a noun.
- How do you pronounce anathema?
- Anathema is pronounced /əˈnæθəmə/.
- What is the plural of anathema?
- The plural of anathema is anathemas.
Words near anathema in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: anathema (page history and authors); بددعا (Urdu) (page history and authors); anathema (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); anathema (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); anathema (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-anathema.ogg.
Cite this entry: “anathema.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/anathema. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.