heathenism
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.46 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonym: paganism"
- "A woman's love is essentially lonely and spiritual in its nature—feeding on fancy, rather than hope—or like that fairy flower of the East, which floats in, and lives upon, the air. Her attachment is the heathenism of the heart: she has herself created the glory and beauty with which the idol of her altar stands invested."
- "Meanwhile the Christian Church from these speculations has kept itself severely apart - as of course representing a unique and divine revelation little concerned or interested in such heathenisms[.]"
- "[…] they urge all followers of the Prophet to return to an authentic Islam, devoid of heathenism and innovations."
Etymology
From heathen + -ism, coined in the 17th century in place of the then-obsolete heathendom. First attested in Francis Bacon's Of the advancement of learning (1605), II. xiv. §9: "The heresy of the Anthropomorphites … and the opinion of Epicurus, answerable to the same in heathenism, who supposed the gods to be in human shape" (OED).