anathema
Americannoun
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anathemas,
plural
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anathemata
plural
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a person or thing detested or loathed.
That subject is anathema to him.
-
a person or thing accursed or consigned to damnation or destruction.
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a formal ecclesiastical curse involving excommunication.
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any imprecation of divine punishment.
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a curse; execration.
noun
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a detested person or thing
he is anathema to me
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a formal ecclesiastical curse of excommunication or a formal denunciation of a doctrine
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the person or thing so cursed
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a strong curse; imprecation
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of anathema
First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin, from Greek: “a thing accursed, devoted to evil,” originally “devoted,” from ana(ti)thé(nai) “to set up” + -ma, noun suffix
Explanation
Something that one absolutely and positively cannot stand is anathema. Garlic is anathema to vampires (ditto for stakes and daylight). So is kryptonite to Superman or a silver bullet to a werewolf. Originally the term anathema comes from the Catholic practice of denouncing a particular individual or idea that was antithetical to the Catholic Church. If done to a person, it excommunicated them, meaning they could no longer partake in the church's sacraments (with presumably pretty poor consequences for the soul.) That's a lot worse than kryptonite.
Vocabulary lists containing anathema
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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.
See Examples For:
Instead, they will need to pursue something that’s been largely anathema to the American system of government: accountability.
From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2026
Commercials were anathema to Hastings, but Netflix has now built an ad business.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 6, 2025
The casual word “untitled” was pretty common in art, but it possesses an air of disinterest that seems anathema in the vicinity of a Therrien.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2025
An inherent suspicion of good writing is probably anathema to producing good writing.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2025
Even though Dr. Darwin was not a religious man himself, having a son who was in the church was not an anathema to him.
From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman
As he pronounced anathemas on you and your kind, the smile peeked out beneath the sneer.
From Slate ● Dec. 16, 2011
The Welles-Houseman partnership ended badly, with Welles hurling blazing Sterno heaters at Producer Houseman and howling anathemas at him in that voice of Zeus.
From Time Magazine Archive
The next year the spiritual leaders of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy withdrew the mutual anathemas that their predecessors had hurled at each other a full millennium before.
From Time Magazine Archive
She utters her prophecies and anathemas as if the blood of Cassandra were coursing through her veins.
From Time Magazine Archive
But I'm not to be drowned, that's clear, till I've settled with that old rogue Pryse,' he says, with an emphasis and a look that are in themselves anathemas.
From The Making of William Edwards or The Story of the Bridge of Beauty by Mrs. G. Linnaeus Banks
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.
