Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A formal ecclesiastical ban, curse, or excommunication.
- n. A vehement denunciation; a curse: "the sound of a witch's anathemas in some unknown tongue” ( Nathaniel Hawthorne).
- n. One that is cursed or damned.
- n. One that is greatly reviled, loathed, or shunned: "Essentialism—a belief in natural, immutable sex differences—is anathema to postmodernists, for whom sexuality itself, along with gender, is a 'social construct'” ( Wendy Kaminer).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A person or thing held to be accursed or devoted to damnation or destruction.
- n. A curse or denunciation pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, involving excommunication. This species of excommunication was practised in the ancient churches against incorrigible offenders. Churches were warned not to receive them, magistrates and private persons were admonished not to harbor or maintain them, and priests were enjoined not to converse with them or attend their funerals. Also called
judiciary anathema . The formula, “which if anybody deny let him be anathema,” is commonly added to the decrees of ecclesiastical councils, and especially to the doctrinal canons of ecumenical councils. It is denied by some theologians that the idea of a curse properly belongs to the anathema as used in the Christian church. Seeexcommunication . - n. Hence Any imprecation of divine punishment; a curse; an execration.
- n. Anything devoted to religious uses.
- n. A phrase, properly two separate words (see etymology), occurring in the following passage, where it is popularly regarded (and hence sometimes elsewhere used) as an intenser form of anathema.
- n. Synonyms and Curse, Execration, etc. See malediction.
Wiktionary
- n. A ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, often accompanied by excommunication; denunciation of anything as accursed.
- n. An imprecation; a curse; a malediction.
- n. Any person or thing anathematized, or cursed by ecclesiastical authority.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, and accompanied by excommunication. Hence: Denunciation of anything as accursed.
- n. An imprecation; a curse; a malediction.
- n. Any person or thing anathematized, or cursed by ecclesiastical authority.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a formal ecclesiastical curse accompanied by excommunication
- n. a detested person
Etymologies
- Late Latin anathema, doomed offering, accursed thing, from Greek, from anatithenai, anathe-, to dedicate : ana-, ana- + tithenai, to put; see dhē- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Of course (he says self-servingly) the No Spin Zone rejects predictability entirely and lives to ask questions that require actual thought, a word anathema to most politicians in this age of spin.”
“I'm just excited I used the word anathema in a sentence!”
“The word anathema frequently occurs in St. Paul's writings, and is generally translated accused.”
“A solemn anathema is pronounced against Nestorius and Eutyches; against all heretics by whom Christ is divided, or confounded, or reduced to a phantom.”
“So across the political spectrum, for anyone thinking in essentialist terms, the mores render the word anathema from both directions.”
“The word is anathema to conservative or middle-of-the-road politicians in most countries, who see in it a radical and perhaps exaggerated voice.”
The Guardian: Why there's no reason to fear feminism | Jonathan Glennie
“Even lifestyle choices like driving a small car, carpooling and living in the vicinity of where we work are largely anathema, which is why I'm not the least bit shocked by the Lexus LS 600h L.”
The Wall Street Journal: Pale Green -- Lexus's $100,000 Hybrid
“Curse Alviarin and that triply cursed proclamation calling anathema on anyone who approached him save through the Tower.”
Knife of Dreams
“The Greek word anathema, Hebrew herem, means to accurse, execrate, to damn.”
“He raved against the workers for choosing a non-Communist, called anathema upon their heads, and threatened them with the Tcheka and the curtailment of their rations.”
My Disillusionment in Russia
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘anathema’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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GRE 1100
drudgery, implore, hapless, nuance, wrest, incipient, inadvertent, tremulous, bristle, euphemism, disdain, pugnacious and 346 more...
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DAY8_01/11/2013
People You Wouldn't Want To Meet _AND_ Religious Words
syncretic, ecclesiastical, parochial, jaundice, jejune, bilious, choleric, Sanguine, martinet, curmudgeon, misanthrope, reprobate and 8 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1908 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
tatterdemalion, panopticon, idioglossia, hypnagogue, hypnopomp, defenestration, anacoluthon, scofflaw, affront, edifying, palimpsest, naufrage and 476 more...
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1100 words you need to know
GRE words
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 288 more...
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ICE
quincunx, adoxography, panjundrum, breloque, surd, scripturient, rousant, favrile, embouchure, aquarelle, griffonage, sussultatory and 234 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
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g sat ana-ante
antecede, animosity, anoint, annuity, annex, annals, animus, anathema, ancillary, antecedent
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SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for anathema.

Louises See lycanthropic Mar 3, 2012
jwjarvis Therefore, the increased SHBG under conditions of fat metabolism is anathema to the steroid-suppression of SHBG release model. Apr 23, 2010
rolig This word is usually used without any article, so for the Studio 60 quote, I would say, "Quality is not anathema to profit." Feb 16, 2009
myth quality is not an anathema to profit - Studio 60 Feb 16, 2009
bilby "The final reason for the cessation of violence was the stand-down by Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, which is lying low. That stand-down, which can be reversed at any time, was brokered by -- Iran. But Iran is playing all sides: It supports both Maliki and Sadr. The U.S. simply cannot compete in this kind of deep game, at which Iran has excelled for centuries, without diplomatic engagement. But for McCain, that is anathema."
- Gary Kamiya, 'Remember Iraq?', 30 Sep 2008. Oct 1, 2008