Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Heathen systems of religion or morals; pagan practice or belief; paganism.
  • noun Heathenish manners or condition; the degraded or uncultured state of those who are uninfluenced by Christianity; barbarism; ignorance; irreligion: as, the heathenism of the slums.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The religious system or rites of a heathen nation; idolatry; paganism.
  • noun The manners or morals usually prevalent in a heathen country; ignorance; rudeness; barbarism.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun paganism, heathendom
  • noun unchristian state or condition

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of various religions other than Christianity or Judaism or Islamism

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From heathen plus -ism, coined in the 17th century in place of the then-obsolete heathendom. First attested in Francis Bacon, 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).

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Examples

  • {1} But oh, my friends, think you our guides, our native attendants, deep-sunk in heathenism, were affected by such a scene?

    WHEN ALICE TOLD HER SOUL 2010

  • But oh, my friends, think you our guides, our native attendants, deep-sunk in heathenism, were affected by such a scene?

    When Alice Told Her Soul 1919

  • But, oh, my friends, think you our guides, our native attendants, deep-sunk in heathenism, were affected by such a scene?

    When Alice Told Her Soul 1918

  • Judaism, so far from being merged in heathenism, made inroads by conversions on the idolatry of surrounding nations.

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • That the past must always run into the present, and the present proceed from the past, we readily enough allow as a natural and necessary law; yet baptized heathenism is often heathenism still, under another name.

    Moon Lore Timothy Harley

  • That, too, is typical of heathenism, which is sad with unavailing cries and ignorant of answers to any.

    Expositions of Holy Scripture Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and First Book of Samuel, Second Samuel, First Kings, and Second Kings chapters I to VII Alexander Maclaren 1868

  • After that, there are four tracts by George Hamilton on extreme unction, the Biblical sanction for Protestantism (the old "where was your church before Luther?" question), Roman Catholic "heathenism" (the old "you stole your rites from the pagan" routine), and the worship of the saints.

    The Little Professor: 2006

  • After that, there are four tracts by George Hamilton on extreme unction, the Biblical sanction for Protestantism (the old "where was your church before Luther?" question), Roman Catholic "heathenism" (the old "you stole your rites from the pagan" routine), and the worship of the saints.

    Manual 2006

  • And if here he seems to become, in any sense, at one with "heathenism," that he might gain the heathen to the faith of Christ, it was because he found in heathenism some elements of truth akin to Christianity, and a state of feeling favorable to an inquiry into the truths he had to present.

    Christianity and Greek Philosophy or, the relation between spontaneous and reflective thought in Greece and the positive teaching of Christ and His Apostles 1852

  • We may shudder at the "heathenism" of a Turkish harem, and send missionaries to convert the Mohammedans; we may stand aghast at the idea of twenty thousand Syrian women sold to supply the harems of the Mussulmans, and pour out our money like water to relieve or release them; but wherein is all this a whit worse than what is constantly practiced, with scarce a word of unfavorable comment, in our own "Christian" (?) land?

    Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon: or Inside Views of Southern Domestic Life. 1861

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