Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A sectarian.
  • noun A dissenter from an established church, especially a Protestant nonconformist.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A member of a particular sect, school, party, or profession.
  • noun Specifically
  • noun A member or an adherent of a sect in religion; a sectarian: often used opprobriously by those who regard as mere sects all bodies of Christians outside of their own.
  • noun Synonyms Dissenter, Schismatic, etc. See heretic.
  • Sectarian.

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

  • noun A sectarian; a member or adherent of a sect; a follower or disciple of some particular teacher in philosophy or religion; one who separates from an established church; a dissenter.

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

  • noun A sectarian.
  • noun A Protestant dissenter or nonconformist.

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

  • noun a member of a sect

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin sectārius, from Latin secta, sect; see sect.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Either from the French sectaire or directly from its etymon, the Medieval Latin sectārius, from secta ("sect"). Cognates include the Italian settario and the Portuguese and Spanish sectario.

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Examples

Comments

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  • "'... if an Italian and a papist would have been the ideal candidate for a murderer, then the daughter of a sectary, of loose morals and a fiery temper, would have been an adequate replacement.'"

    —Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost (New York: Riverhead Books, 1998), 134

    October 7, 2008