Word.ws English Dictionary

syncretism

/ˈsɪŋkɹəˌtɪzm̩/

syncretism noun: the reconciliation or fusion of different systems or beliefs (religious, cultural, or otherwise cosmologic or ontologic).

Noun

syncretism (countable and uncountable, plural syncretisms)

  1. The reconciliation or fusion of different systems or beliefs (religious, cultural, or otherwise cosmologic or ontologic).
    • Having thus established his trinity of hypotheses, M. Lamennais deduces therefrom, by a badly connected chain of analogies, his whole philosophy. And it is here especially that we notice the syncretism which is peculiar to him. The theory of M. Lamennais embraces all systems, and supports all...1876 [1840], “Second Memoir”, in Benjamin R. Tucker, transl., What is Property?, translation of Qu'est-ce que la propriété ? by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
    • It provides a more natural explanation of the Colossian syncretism as stemming from local religious impulses that continued to wield a powerful draw on people converted to Christianity from the local Jewish communities and pagan cults.[…]The kind of syncretism we find at Colossae was not unique to...1995, Clinton E. Arnold, The Colossian Syncretism: The Interface Between Christianity and Folk Belief at Colossae, J.C.B. Mohr (Paul SieBeck), page 238
    Synonyms:
    syncresis
  2. The fusion of different inflexional forms.
    • In this paper a distinction is assumed between full syncretism, which affects whole morphemes, and partial syncretism, which affects only some case allomorphs, and also between syncretism proper and mere loss of a case morpheme.1993, Robert Coleman, “Patterns of Syncretism in Indo-European”, in Henk Aertsen, Robert J. Jeffers, editors, Historical Linguistics 1989: Papers from the 9th International Conference, John Benjamins...
    • Romanian conjugation displays several cases of syncretism, in which two paradigmatic slots share the same grammatical desinence.[…]On the other hand, the syncretisms of the imperfect and subjunctive are not phonologically conditioned and, as such, apply to every verb without exception.2004, Ronald F. Feldstein, “On the Structure of Syncretism in Romanian Conjugation”, in Julie Auger, J. Clancy Clements, Barbara Vance, editors, Contemporary Approaches to Romance Linguistics, John...

syncretism meaning in Tamil and Urdu

syncretism in Tamil

குழந்தைகளின் சிந்தனை நிலை

syncretism in Urdu

امتزاج ضدین

Examples of syncretism in a sentence

  • And it is here especially that we notice the syncretism which is peculiar to him.1876 [1840], “Second Memoir”, in Benjamin R. Tucker, transl., What is Property?, translation of Qu'est-ce que la propriété ? by...
  • Kraft's functional view of Anthropology eventually leads to syncretism because God is understood as working within a modern, humanistic paradigm.2006, Gailyn Van Rheenen, “1: Syncretism and Contextualization: The Church on a Journey Defining Itself”, in Gailyn Van Rheenen, editor...
  • The strategies of religious syncretism—the active transformation through renegotiation, reorganization, and redefinition of clashing belief systems—are consistent with the creolization process.2010, Marguerite Fernández Olmos, Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert, “Creole Religions of the Caribbean”, in Claudio Iván Remeseira, editor...
  • In this chapter, I will investigate whether they deserve this name by looking at syncretisms between clusivity and other person markers.2005, Michael Cysouw, “Chapter 3: Syncretisms involving clusivity”, in Elena Filimonova, editor, Clusivity: Typology and Case Studies of...

Synonyms of syncretism

Forms of syncretism

pluralsyncretisms

Origin of syncretism

From Latin syncretismus, from Ancient Greek συγκρητισμός (sunkrētismós, “federation of Cretan cities”), from συγκρητίζω (sunkrētízō, “to unite against a common enemy”), from σύν (sún, “together”) (see English syn-) + Κρῆτες (Krêtes, “Cretans”). By surface analysis, syn- + Crete + -ism (“Crete joining together”).

Words formed from syncretism

Questions about syncretism

What does syncretism mean?
Syncretism means the reconciliation or fusion of different systems or beliefs (religious, cultural, or otherwise cosmologic or ontologic).
What is syncretism in Tamil?
Syncretism in Tamil is குழந்தைகளின் சிந்தனை நிலை. See Syncretism meaning in Tamil.
How do you use syncretism in a sentence?
And it is here especially that we notice the syncretism which is peculiar to him.
What part of speech is syncretism?
Syncretism is a noun.
How do you pronounce syncretism?
Syncretism is pronounced /ˈsɪŋkɹəˌtɪzm̩/.
What is the plural of syncretism?
The plural of syncretism is syncretisms.

Words near syncretism in the dictionary

  1. syncretions
  2. syncretise
  3. syncretised
  4. syncretises
  5. syncretising
  6. syncretism
  7. syncretisms
  8. syncretist
  9. syncretistic
  10. syncretistical
  11. syncretistically

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: syncretism (page history and authors); syncretism (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); syncretism (Urdu 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.

Last updated:

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

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