paganism

Syllables: pa·gan·ism/ˈpeɪɡənɪzm̩/

paganism noun: any indigenous polytheistic religion.

Noun

paganism (countable and uncountable, plural paganisms)

Any indigenous polytheistic religion.
- Most people in that region practise their own form of paganism.
Any of a class of religions often associated with nature rituals.
- Various neopagan movements have arisen, each advancing its own form of paganism. Some are monotheist.

paganism meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Arabic

paganism in Tamil

paganism, heathenism: அஞ்ஞானம் aññāṉam

paganism in Urdu

local religions practiced before the introduction of Christianity: پاگانیت pāgāniyat

paganism in Arabic

local religions practiced before the introduction of Christianity: وَثَنِيَّة waṯaniyya

Forms of paganism

plural	paganisms

Origin of paganism

From Latin pāgānismus (“heathenism”), from pāgānus (“peasant, rural, rustic”). The term was used pejoratively by local Orthodox Christian Demonyms to belittle what remained of alternative native ideas and ideals. By surface analysis, pagan + -ism.

Words formed from paganism

Questions about paganism

What does paganism mean?: Paganism means any indigenous polytheistic religion.
What is paganism in Tamil?: Paganism in Tamil is அஞ்ஞானம் (aññāṉam). See Paganism meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is paganism?: Paganism is a noun.
How do you pronounce paganism?: Paganism is pronounced /ˈpeɪɡənɪzm̩/.
What is the plural of paganism?: The plural of paganism is paganisms.

Words near paganism in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: paganism (page history and authors); அஞ்ஞானம் (Tamil) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-paganism.wav.

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