Anabaptist

[ an-uh-bap-tist ]

/ ˌæn əˈbæp tɪst /

noun

a member of any of various Protestant sects, formed in Europe after 1520, that denied the validity of infant baptism, baptized believers only, and advocated social and economic reforms as well as the complete separation of church and state.

Archaic. Baptist(def 1).

adjective

of or relating to Anabaptists or Anabaptism.

Origin of Anabaptist

1525–35; < New Latin anabaptista < Medieval Latin anabapt(īzāre) to rebaptize (< Late Greek anabaptī́zein; see ana-, baptize) + -ista -ist

OTHER WORDS FROM Anabaptist

An·a·bap·tism, nounAn·a·bap·tis·ti·cal·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020

Examples from the Web for anabaptism

The government put down Anabaptism, as a modern government might stamp out Anarchism.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 8|Various
For days and nights, full twenty-one, did Shelley and Edward ponder on her anabaptism, and the washing out the primeval stain.
The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume I (of 2)|Florence A. Thomas Marshall
It was in the year 1526 that Anabaptism first made its appearance in Strassburg.
German Culture Past and Present|Ernest Belfort Bax
His crime, to be sure, was anabaptism, the most deadly offence in the calendar.
The Rise of the Dutch Republic, Volume I.(of III) 1555-66|John Lothrop Motley

After the close of the sixteenth century Anabaptism lost all political importance on the continent of Europe.
German Culture Past and Present|Ernest Belfort Bax

British Dictionary definitions for anabaptism

Anabaptist

/ (ˌænəˈbæptɪst) /

noun

a member of any of various 16th-century Protestant movements that rejected infant baptism, insisted that adults be rebaptized, and sought to establish Christian communism

a member of a later Protestant sect holding the same doctrines, esp with regard to baptism

adjective

of or relating to these movements or sects or their doctrines

Derived forms of Anabaptist

Anabaptism, noun

Word Origin for Anabaptist

C16: from Ecclesiastical Latin anabaptista, from anabaptīzāre to baptize again, from Late Greek anabaptizein; see ana-, baptize

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012