heretic
Americannoun
-
a professed believer who maintains religious opinions contrary to those accepted by their church or rejects doctrines prescribed by that church.
- Synonyms:
- Protestant, recreant, backslider, apostate
-
Roman Catholic Church. a baptized Roman Catholic who willfully and persistently rejects any article of faith.
-
anyone who does not conform to an established attitude, doctrine, or principle.
- Synonyms:
- freethinker, skeptic, dissenter
adjective
noun
-
RC Church a person who maintains beliefs contrary to the established teachings of the Church
-
a person who holds unorthodox opinions in any field
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of heretic
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English heretik from Middle French heretique from Late Latin haereticus from Greek hairetikós “able to choose” ( Late Greek: “heretical”), equivalent to hairet(ós) “that may be taken” (verbal adjective of haireîn “to choose”) + -ikos -ic
Explanation
If your friend became interested in Hinduism, with its many gods and rituals, her Catholic mother might be worried that her daughter was a heretic, or a person whose religious beliefs are in contrast to the fundamental beliefs of her church. The noun heretic is mostly used in a religious context to talk about someone whose actions or beliefs act against the laws, rules, or beliefs of some specific religion. However, heretic can also be used in a non-religious way to mean "someone whose ideas go against the norm." Say your regular hangout is a cowboy honky-tonk and most of your friends play in country bands; you might be considered a heretic if you announced that your favorite kind of music is actually opera.
Vocabulary lists containing heretic
1984
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Much Ado About Nothing
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The Suffix -ic, Part 1
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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:
This was a genius-level insight that caused Thiel to be hounded out of San Francisco as a heretic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025
And he doesn't necessarily hope to, he said, which "makes me a bit of a heretic."
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2024
Before his peers would label him a heretic, the late Bishop Carlton D. Pearson was once one of the best known preachers in the nation.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 2, 2023
Mr. Dalsjo of the Swedish Defense Research Agency, calling himself a heretic, cautions in a recent paper that this threat is real but may be overblown, especially after Russia’s losses in Ukraine.
From New York Times ● May 31, 2023
This was a tribulation; Isaac wanted sorely the camaraderie of his heretic congregation, their sweet witness; he missed the singing and tears, the prayers of love and fellow-feeling, the entreaties of sorrow assuaged.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
Mr. Persico mentions that Martin Luther hated Jews and persecuted heretics, and he acknowledges that Locke excluded Catholics and atheists from toleration.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025
He taught an essential lesson by asserting that religious and political people alike were divided between those who hunted for heretics and those who sought converts.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 23, 2022
When we left the room, Coleman muttered, "The problem is they do not believe in heretics."
From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2022
They were considered heretics by IS, a Sunni jihadist group.
From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2021
All night, I slept with Gwenforte curled beside me, and my sleep was deeper than any I had had since my disaster with the heretics in Italy.
From "The Inquisitor's Tale" by Adam Gidwitz
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.
