Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Offensive One who adheres to the religion of a people or nation that does not acknowledge the God of Judaism, Christianity, or Islam.
- n. Offensive Such persons considered as a group; the unconverted.
- n. An adherent of a Neopagan religion that seeks to revive the religious beliefs and practices of the ancient Germanic peoples.
- n. Informal One who is regarded as irreligious, uncivilized, or unenlightened.
- n. Informal Such persons considered as a group.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- One of a race, nation, or people that does not acknowledge the God of the Bible, or such races, nations, or peoples collectively, especially when uncivilized or uncultured; one who is not a Jew, Christian, or Mohammedan; a pagan.
- In Scripture, with the definite article, the gentiles; those nations or peoples that did not acknowledge Jehovah, the God of the Jews, as the true God; hence, idolaters, from the prevalence of idolatry among them.
- Any irreligious, rude, barbarous, or unthinking person or class: as, the heathen at home.
- Pagan; gentile: as, heathen superstitions or customs.
- Synonyms See gentile, n.
Wiktionary
- adj. not adhering to an Abrahamic religion; pagan.
- adj. by extension uncultured; uncivilized; savage, philistine.
- adj. Alternative capitalization of Heathen (pertaining or adhering to the Germanic neo-pagan faith Heathenry).
- n. A person who does not follow an Abrahamic religion; a pagan.
- n. by extension An uncultured or uncivilized person, philistine.
- n. Alternative capitalization of Heathen (an adherent of the Germanic neo-pagan faith of Heathenry).
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An individual of the pagan or unbelieving nations, or those which worship idols and do not acknowledge the true God; a pagan; an idolater.
- n. An irreligious person.
- adj. Gentile; pagan.
- adj. Barbarous; unenlightened; heathenish.
- adj. Irreligious; scoffing.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a person who does not acknowledge your god
- adj. not acknowledging the God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam
Etymologies
- Germanic: from Old English hǣþen, akin to heath on the moor, the poor, 'wild' countryside; cognate with Dutch heiden, German Heide. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English hethen, from Old English hǣthen; see kaito- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It had made more than two millions of heathen in our country; and so long as the cries of these _heathen at home_ entered the ears of our young men and young women, they could not, dare not, go abroad.”
“Suggestions from what we call the heathen world seemed to accord with his Gospel of the Wild.”
“When Christian missionaries invade what they call a heathen country, they are followed in a little while by merchants and traders, and in a few days afterward by the army.”
“The difference between the predictions of the Spirit and the oracles of the heathen is remarkable; the Spirit speaks expressly, but the oracles of the heathen were always doubtful and uncertain.”
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation)
“The reproach of the heathen is here for ever silenced and justly retorted.”
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon)
“A heathen is less than a Muslim and a woman is “less than” an man.”
“A heathen is less than a Christian and a woman is “less than” an man.”
“Again, this heathen is confused by your "living like Christ" examples! mrs b”
“Can you tell them farewell, farewell no more to meet them on earth, can you Oh! can you leave them and native land far, far in heathen lands to dwell, can, you say,”
“The distinction between being a Christian or a heathen is not reducible to a private/public distinction in part because the privately assured”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘heathen’.
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Olde Englisc
English words of Anglo-Saxon origin.
onslaught, slain, clove, clave, thrice, nincompoop, scorn, storm, scant, lurk, beneath, atop and 143 more...
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henryar's list
marmoleum, menagerie, cyan, ochre, pilfer, discombobulate, loquacious, iridescent, amethyst, derelict, botulism, equilibrium and 240 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Miscellany
avid, shard, begone, gibes, romantic, inspiration, dashing, affliction, daring, elocution, hegemony, supercalifragilis... and 97 more...
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polymorph's Words
pornerastic, yeaux, enantiadromia, synchronicity, transubstantiation, sensimilla, slough, scaphism, symbiosis, prolix, orgiastic, cryptogamic and 245 more...
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je les adore!
fusillade, foal, celestial, abattoir, byzantium, berlin, casablanca, babylon, balkans, albion, avalon, between the devil... and 471 more...
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junemoonchild's Favorite Words
Aubrey, astrology, Cancer, Taurus, dybbuk, enchantress, love, mystery, mysteriarch, spirit, melancholy, disintegration and 129 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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kewpid's Words
moleskine, araldite, dessicate, cellar door, grotesque, fallacy, vendetta, raindrop, panacea, ethereal, hircus, treppenwitz and 446 more...
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NakedFringe's Words
masticate, chamber, orchid, mandolin, yellow, pomegranate, conundrum, paradox, gyrate, calamitous, opalescent, cacophony and 533 more...
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Spelling Bee list 2011
Abalone, ablution, absolution, aboriginally, abstemious, academician, acclamation, accommodation, acculturation, acetic, acetone, acme and 590 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Some Words I Love to Use
arcology, strumpet, crux, confected, pedant, bluestocking, cogitation, incensed, lovecraftian, cygnet, dactyl, adytum and 539 more...
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logophile
viresce, infinitum, transient, nonpareil, anon, therianthropy, lycomania, halcyon, unblinkered, seraphim, nephilim, moros and 160 more...
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dienekes's Words
chutzpah, lexicon, intrepid, pedagogical, schlemiel, schism, erudite, anathema, pugilist, jaunty, paradigm, automaton and 949 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for heathen.

brandelion definitely one of my very favorite words. Dec 2, 2006