Word.ws English Dictionary

pagan

/ˈpeɪɡən/

pagan adjective: relating to, characteristic of religions that differ from main world religions. Also the alternative form of paigon.

Adjective

pagan (not comparable)

  1. Relating to, characteristic of religions that differ from main world religions.
    • Under Christianization, many converted societies transformed their pagan deities into saints.
    • Black metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that typically takes on anti-Christian, satanic and pagan themes.2019 April 12, Paul P. Murphy, Samira Said, “Louisiana arson suspect expressed disgust with Baptist churches on Facebook”, in CNN, archived from the original on 02 Nov 2021
    Antonyms:
    Christian, Muslim, Jewish
  2. (broadly, derogatory) Savage, immoral, uncivilized, wild.

Noun

pagan (plural pagans)

  1. A person not adhering to a main world religion; a follower of a pantheistic or nature-worshipping religion.
    • This community has a surprising number of pagans.
  2. (broadly, derogatory) An uncivilized or unsocialized person.
  3. (broadly, derogatory) An unruly, badly educated child.
    Synonyms:
    brat
  4. An outlaw biker who is a member of the Pagans MC.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Pagan

Pagan (plural Pagans)

  1. A male given name from Latin.
  2. (uncommon) A female given name.
    • 'I've always believed that one of the reasons she never named Pagan's father was to spare her a similar pain.' 'You don't know who he is?' 'No. And, at the risk of sounding like Candida, I'd give anything to find out.'2011 April 19, Michael Arditti, Pagan and Her Parents, Arcadia Books, →ISBN
    • In 2012, author Pagan Kennedy was hired by The New York Times magazine to write a column titled “Who Made That?” She began to hunt the people down behind inventions like sliced bread, the 3-D printer, and lipstick.(Can we date this quote?), QuickRead, Lea Schullery, Inventology by Pagan Kennedy (Summary), QuickRead.com
  3. A surname.
    • Mrs Pagan was delivered of a posthumous child, and thereafter along with the infant (a girl), she brought a process of aliment against John Pagan, who was a hosier in Dumfries, and alleged to be wealthy,[…]1838, Scotland. Court of Session, Cases Decided in the Court of Session, Teind Court, Court of Exchequer and House of Lords, page 399

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Pagan

IPA/pəˈɡɑːn/

Pagan

  1. (dated) The city of Bagan, Myanmar.
  2. (historical) The 9th- to 13th-century Burmese kingdom which had its capital at this city.

Also used as

pagan is also the alternative form of paigon.

pagan meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

pagan in Hindi

person not adhering to a main world religion
बुतपरस्त butparast

pagan in Tamil

புறமதத்தவர்

pagan in Marathi

मूर्तिपूजक

pagan in Urdu

person not adhering to a main world religion
بُت پَرَسْت but parast
More languagesFewer languages
pagan in Bengali
পৌত্তলিক, পাগান
pagan in Telugu
అన్యమతస్థుడు
pagan in Malayalam
പുറജാതീയൻ
pagan in Kannada
ಪೇಗನ್, ಪಾಗನ್
pagan in Gujarati
મૂર્તિપૂજક
pagan in Odia
ପୌତ୍ତଳୀ, ପାଗାନ୍, ପେଗାନ୍
pagan in Nepali
मूर्तिपूजक
pagan in Pashto
بت پرست bot parast
pagan in Tagalog
pagano, di-binyagan
pagan in Arabic
وَثَنِيّ waṯaniyy, جَاهِل jāhil, وَحْشِيّ waḥšiyy, وَثَنِيَّة waṯaniyya
pagan in Persian
بت پرست bât pârest
pagan in Vietnamese
ngoại đạo

Examples of pagan in a sentence

  • The combination of brk and rb is quite spectacular from the perspective of the pagan Arabian inscriptions.
  • The name later came to be misvocalized and misconstrued as if there were such a pagan god.
  • Foulon began to swear like a pagan, shouting: ‘Get thee hence, thou rogue and blackguard!

All 34 example sentences with pagan

Synonyms of pagan

18 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of pagan

Forms of pagan

Noun
pluralpagans
Proper noun
pluralPagans

Plural of pagan: pagans

Origin of pagan

From Middle English pagan (adjective and noun), from Latin pāgānus (“rural, rustic; civilian”), replaced Middle English payen from the same root. The meaning “not Christian” arose in Vulgar Latin, probably from the 4th century, owing to the Roman countryside being largely non-Christian, or potentially from the “civilian” meaning—denoting those not in the “army of Christ”. As a self-designation of neopagans, attested since 1990. Partly displaced native heathen, from Old English hǣþen. Note the opposition: pagan, peasant (related via pāgus), rustic, savage (<< Latin silvāticus), villain (<< Latin vīllānus), boorish vs. urbane, civil, courteous (akin to court). Also note Ancient Greek ἄγροικος (ágroikos) vs. ἀστεῖος (asteîos).

Borrowed from Latin pāgānus (“rustic, rural”).

Borrowing from Burmese ပုဂံ (pu.gam). Doublet of Bagan.

Words formed from pagan

Phrases with pagan

Words that rhyme with pagan

Questions about pagan

What does pagan mean?
Pagan means relating to, characteristic of religions that differ from main world religions.
What is pagan in Hindi?
Pagan in Hindi is बुतपरस्त (butparast). See Pagan meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is pagan?
Pagan can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce pagan?
Pagan is pronounced /ˈpeɪɡən/.

Words near pagan in the dictionary

  1. Pagalanggang
  2. pagalee
  3. Pagalongan
  4. pagals
  5. Pagalungan
  6. pagan
  7. Pagan's Paddock
  8. Paganalia
  9. Paganalian
  10. pagandom
  11. Paganelli

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pagan (page history and authors); Pagan (page history and authors); pagan (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pagan (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pagan (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pagan (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pagan (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pagan (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pagan (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pagan (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pagan (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-pagan.ogg.

Cite this entry: “pagan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pagan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.