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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

heresy.

A doctrine held by a member of a religion at variance or conflict with established religious beliefs.

6 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈhɛɹəsi/
  1. A doctrine held by a member of a religion at variance or conflict with established religious beliefs.

    countable · uncountable
  2. A controversial or unorthodox opinion held by a member of a group, as in politics, philosophy or science.

    broadly · countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English heresie (Middle English her(esie) + -esy), from Old French heresie (modern hérésie), from Latin haeresis, from Ancient Greek αἵρεσις (haíresis, “choice, system of principles”), from αἱρέομαι (hairéomai, “to take for oneself, to choose”), the middle voice of αἱρέω (hairéō, “to take”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ser-; see also Welsh herw (“theft, raid”), Ancient Greek στερέω (steréō, “to deprive of”). Displaced native Old English dwild.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.