heathen
Americannoun
plural
heathens, heathen-
(in historical contexts) a member of a people that do not acknowledge the God of the Bible; a pagan.
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Sometimes Disparaging and Offensive.
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a person who is not a Christian, Jew, or Muslim.
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an irreligious, uncultured, or uncivilized person.
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adjective
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(in historical contexts) of or relating to heathens; pagan.
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Sometimes Disparaging and Offensive.
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relating to a religion, person, or culture that is not Christian, Jewish, or Muslim.
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irreligious, uncultured, or uncivilized.
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noun
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a person who does not acknowledge the God of Christianity, Judaism, or Islam; pagan
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an uncivilized or barbaric person
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(functioning as plural) heathens collectively
adjective
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irreligious; pagan
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unenlightened; uncivilized; barbaric
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of or relating to heathen peoples or their religious, moral, and other customs, practices, and beliefs
Related Words
See pagan.
Other Word Forms
- half-heathen adjective
- heathendom noun
- heathenhood noun
- heathenism noun
- heathenness noun
- heathenship noun
- nonheathen nounnonheathen, nonheathens
- unheathen adjective
Etymology
Origin of heathen
First recorded before 900; Middle English hethen, Old English hǣthen, akin to German Heide, heidnisch (adjective), Old Norse heithingi (noun), heithinn (adjective), Gothic haithno (noun); perhaps akin to heath
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
With the passage of centuries, the Eurocentric accounts that depicted Cortés as a heroic “white savior” and Moctezuma as a cowardly heathen have been eclipsed.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 24, 2025
I don't want to just boil it down to a justification for empire, because I don't think everybody using the concept of the heathen is doing it with that in mind.
From Salon • Jul. 4, 2022
“I joked that since I didn’t get the religious one I must be a heathen or something,” he said.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 18, 2021
In Bell’s Funkadelic Universe, he wasn’t just an illustrator but an “electric marker heathen of speedomatic dabblings,” as he titled himself on the album “One Nation Under a Groove.”
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 28, 2019
Olly: haikus are awful, they're just less fun limericks Madeline: You've been downgraded from heathen to heretic.
From "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
