heresy
/ˈhɛɹəsi/
heresy noun: a doctrine held by a member of a religion at variance or conflict with established religious beliefs.
Noun
heresy (countable and uncountable, plural heresies)
- A doctrine held by a member of a religion at variance or conflict with established religious beliefs.
- Heresy meant deliberate departure from the accepted doctrines of the church. It was intellectual and spiritual dissent and concerned the beliefs of Christianity, not the morals of its adherents.1968, History of Western Civilization, edited by Heyes, Baldwin & Cole, p.47. Macmillan. Library of Congress 67–13596
- A controversial or unorthodox opinion held by a member of a group, as in politics, philosophy or science.
- I'm going to declare a heresy for you. All science, if you go back into its roots, saying: 'Why do I believe this?' 'Well, I believe this because of these tests and this proof.' 'Well, why do I believe this?' 'Why did I set up this test?' 'Why did I believe that proof?' All science goes back to...1985 April 17, Frank Herbert, 15:58 from the start, in Frank Herbert speaking at UCLA 4/17/1985, UCLACommStudies, archived from the original on 10 Feb 2017
heresy meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
heresy in Hindi
- dissension from religious dogma
- अपधर्म apdharm, पाषंड pāṣaṇḍ, पाखंड pākhaṇḍ
heresy in Urdu
- dissension from religious dogma
- بِدْعَت bid'at
heresy in Bengali
- dissension from religious dogma
- বৈধর্ম্য bōidhormmo
heresy in Malayalam
- വേദവിരുദ്ധം, മതവിരുദ്ധവാദം, മതനിന്ദ, ആചാരവിരോധം, ശീശ്മ, പാഷണ്ഡത
More languagesFewer languages
- heresy in Kannada
- ಪಾಷಂಡ ಮತ, ಪಾಷಂಡ ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯ, ಪಾಷಂಡವಾದ ಸಂಪ್ರದಾಯ, ವಿರೋಧಾಭಿಪ್ರಾಯ
- heresy in Sanskrit
- मिथ्यादृष्टि mithyādṛṣṭi, पाषण्ड pāṣaṇḍa
- heresy in Tagalog
- erehiya
- heresy in Arabic
- هَرْطَقَة harṭaqa, بِدْعَة bidʕa
- heresy in Malay
- bid'ah
- heresy in Indonesian
- bidat, aliran sesat
- heresy in Thai
- มิจฉาทิฐิ mít-chǎa-tít-tì
- heresy in Vietnamese
- dị giáo, tà giáo
- heresy in Myanmar
- မိစ္ဆာဒိဌိ michcadi.hti.
Examples of heresy in a sentence
- St. Augustine was the hammer of heresies.
- For Erasmus's anticoercive heresy was about baptism, not about the state.
- The best mask for moral heresy is one of pretended sanctity.
Synonyms of heresy
Antonyms
Forms of heresy
| plural | heresies |
|---|---|
| alternative form | hæresy |
Origin of heresy
From Middle English heresie (Middle English her(esie) + -esy), from Old French heresie (modern hérésie), from Latin haeresis, from Ancient Greek αἵρεσις (haíresis, “choice, system of principles”), from αἱρέομαι (hairéomai, “to take for oneself, to choose”), the middle voice of αἱρέω (hairéō, “to take”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ser-; see also Welsh herw (“theft, raid”), Ancient Greek στερέω (steréō, “to deprive of”). Displaced native Old English dwild.
Words formed from heresy
Phrases with heresy
Questions about heresy
- What does heresy mean?
- Heresy means a doctrine held by a member of a religion at variance or conflict with established religious beliefs.
- What is heresy in Hindi?
- Heresy in Hindi is अपधर्म (apdharm), पाषंड (pāṣaṇḍ), पाखंड (pākhaṇḍ). See Heresy meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is heresy?
- Heresy is a noun.
- How do you pronounce heresy?
- Heresy is pronounced /ˈhɛɹəsi/.
- What is the plural of heresy?
- The plural of heresy is heresies.
Words near heresy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: heresy (page history and authors); heresy (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); heresy (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-heresy.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-heresy.wav.
Cite this entry: “heresy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/heresy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.