Word.ws English Dictionary

anathemas

anathemas is the plural of anathema.

Meaning of anathema

Noun

anathema (plural anathemas or anathemata)

  1. (historical) A ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, often accompanied by excommunication; something denounced as accursed.
    Synonyms:
    ban, curse
  2. (broadly) 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
  3. (literary) 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
  4. 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

Questions about anathemas

What is anathemas the plural of?
Anathemas is the plural of anathema.

Words near anathemas in the dictionary

  1. anatexite
  2. anatexites
  3. anatexitic
  4. Anath
  5. anathema
  6. anathemas
  7. anathemata
  8. anathematic
  9. anathematical
  10. anathematically
  11. anathematisation

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: anathemas (page history and authors); anathema (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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