Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Holding or expressing broad or tolerant views, especially in religious matters.
- n. A member of a group of Anglican Christians active from the 17th through the 19th century who were opposed to dogmatic positions of the Church of England and allowed reason to inform theological interpretation and judgment.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Embracing a wide circle or range; having free scope; not conforming to a strict code of morals; roving; libertine.
- Characterized by latitude or independence of thought, or by forbearance from strict insistence upon the usual standards of belief or opinion; especially, not rigidly strict in religious principles or views; tolerant of free-thinking or heresy: as, latitudinarian opinions or doctrines. The word is generally used opprobriously. It is specifically applied in church history to certain Episcopal divines of the seventeenth century (see below), but in later time to all who regard specific creeds, methods of church government, and forms of worship with comparative indifference.
- n. In. Eng. church hist., one of a school of Episcopal divines who in the seventeenth century strove to unito the dissenters with the Episcopal Church by insisting only on those doctrines which were held in common by both, and who, while they maintained the wisdom of the episcopal form of government and ritual, denied their divine origin and authority.
- n. Hence, in later times, one who regards with comparative indifference specific creeds, methods of church government, and forms of public worship: generally used opprobriously.
Wiktionary
- adj. Tolerant, especially of other people's religious views.
- n. A person who is tolerant of others' religious views.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Not restrained; not confined by precise limits.
- adj. Indifferent to a strict application of any standard of belief or opinion; hence, deviating more or less widely from such standard; lax in doctrine
- adj. Lax in moral or religious principles.
- n. One who is moderate in his notions, or not restrained by precise settled limits in opinion; one who indulges freedom in thinking.
- n. (Eng. Eccl. Hist.) A member of the Church of England, in the time of Charles II., who adopted more liberal notions in respect to the authority, government, and doctrines of the church than generally prevailed.
- n. (Theol.) One who departs in opinion from the strict principles of orthodoxy.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. unwilling to accept authority or dogma (especially in religion)
- n. a person who is broad-minded and tolerant (especially in standards of religious belief and conduct)
Etymologies
- Latin latitudo ("latitude") + -arian (Wiktionary)
- Latin lātitūdō, lātitūdin-, latitude; see latitude + -arian. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Arminianism became a positive aid to the growth of toleration in England; for it became what was called latitudinarian, -- that is, broad in temper, inclusive in spirit, and desirous of bringing all the nation within the limits of one harmonizing and noble-minded church.”
“Several of the bishops were, in fact, "latitudinarian" or "Arminian" in doctrine, wanderers from the severity of Knox and Calvin.”
“latitudinarian" novels constitute a remarkable portion of the recent romantic literature of Germany, we perceive has entered a convent.”
“See J.G. E. Pocock's typically conclusive summary: The ideal of politeness had first appeared in the restoration, where it formed part of the latitudinarian campaign to replace prophetic by sociable religiosity.”
“But a Justice who subscribes to the view that the Constitution's makers intended the judiciary to be the prime headwind against impetuous and myopic Congresses and Presidents will readily embrace latitudinarian interpretations of the text to fulfill the judicial role and blunt the political branches, he says.”
“Given my general position on constitutional interpretation, I certainly don't want to argue, as a theoretical matter, that the Impeachment Clause might not be open to the latitudinarian interpretations suggested by some of the contributors to this thread.”
“The Church of England's latitudinarian moderation could satisfy the mind but it could not reach the heart. p.”
“Lucy the fanaticism of some of her own communion, while she intimated, rather than expressed, horror at the latitudinarian principles which she had been taught to think connected with the prelatical form of church government.”
“I take a very latitudinarian view of poetry — and literature.”
“Follow God's command to the limit allowed by the Constitution, yes -- and I am fairly latitudinarian about where that limit is -- but no further.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘latitudinarian’.
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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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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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phrontistery - l
from phrontistery.info
lacis, laches, labret, labile, lability, labarum, labefactation, labeorphily, lux, luff, lour, limn and 496 more...
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Words you've never actually heard in ...
akimbo, elan, pastiche, contumelious, toady, patronym, scrogneugneu, fecund, latitudinarian, analgesic, eschew
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New Words
idiopathic, quidditas, cloacal, peregrination, cyclamen, expatiate, pedantic, salonniere, manque, pelagic, exogenous, pellucid and 83 more...
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Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition
According to Pope Sixtus IV, by the year 1482, the Inquisitors at Seville, "without observing juridical prescriptions, have detained many persons in violation of justice, punishing them by severe t...
arianism, pelagianism, lollards, manichæans., quietism, latitudinarian, nestorianism, monophysites, eutychianism, lutheranism, wycliffites, encratites and 7 more...
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work these into conversation
Challenge!
legerdemain, polysemic, rupestrian, callipygian, oscitancy, numen, lucubration, asperity, amalgam, apposite, wastrel, eleemosynary and 208 more...
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i heart words
autarkic, cline, aver, limn, gossamer, ochre, fulminate, twee, augur, mollify, maw, ecumenical and 113 more...
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Word Gems
foist, coercion, abecedism, abiectic, abigeus, abiogenesis, ablaut, thunderstruck, dumbfounded, flabbergasted, filagree, blotto and 196 more...
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C. S. Bird – Grandiloquent Dictionary
All the words from the Grandiloquent Dictionary.
946 of these 2700 words do not yield any results in six different dictionaries, hence many of them might be misspellings.
More in...abacinate, abcedarian, abderian, ablegate, abligurition, ablutophobia, abnormous, acarophobia, acathasia, accipitrine, accidia, accubitus and 2690 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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kingrat47's Words
procrustean, devolution, cacophony, hippopotamus, crunch, beware, chortled, sibilant, subtle, undermine, acromegaly, acropolis and 645 more...
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19 c.
some of the interesting words i've had to look up while reading 19th century lit
maugre, connate, alembic, azote, vaticination, valetudinarian, dight, scutcheon, lammergeyer, chamois, asseverate, prebendary and 199 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. I
hobbledehoy, absquatulate, chthonic, prolix, ululate, internecine, verisimilitude, animadversion, concupiscence, vertiginous, cucullate, lucubrate and 1554 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for latitudinarian.

bilby "And yet the Latitudinarian that I love, is one that is only so in Charity; for the Freedom I recommend is no Scepticism in Judgment, and much less so in Practice."
- William Penn, 'Fruits of Solitude'. Sep 8, 2009
jaime_d from Trollope. I love this one. Sep 30, 2007