iconoclast

[ ahy-kon-uh-klast ]

/ aɪˈkɒn əˌklæst /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR iconoclast ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a person who attacks cherished beliefs, traditional institutions, etc., as being based on error or superstition.

a breaker or destroyer of images, especially those set up for religious veneration.

Nearby words

Origin of iconoclast

1590–1600; < Medieval Latin īconoclastēs < Medieval Greek eikonoklástēs, equivalent to Greek eikono- icono- + -klastēs breaker, equivalent to klas- (variant stem of klân to break) + -tēs agent noun suffix

SYNONYMS FOR iconoclast

1 nonconformist, rebel, dissenter, radical.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR iconoclast ON THESAURUS.COM

Related formsi·con·o·clas·tic, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for iconoclast

Concerned and kind, he was also the ultimate risk taker, an iconoclast with an edgy, hard charging quality about him.
They Murdered My Friend|Sandra McElwaine|November 17, 2008|DAILY BEAST
A good many pulsating Dulcineas who didn't know what "Iconoclast" meant, regarded him as an awful Iconoclast.
Ade's Fables|George Ade
The iconoclast both of the revolutionary and of the Napoleonic legends chills alike the heart of the worshippers at either shrine.
Political and Literary essays, 1908-1913|Evelyn Baring
Savonarola has sometimes been described as an iconoclast, obstinately hostile to the fine arts.
Renaissance in Italy Vol. 3|John Addington Symonds

This gentle remonstrance only made the Iconoclast more furious.
Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum|John Healy
I am, at least, not the iconoclast I was when I came into the valley.
Delilah of the Snows|Harold Bindloss

British Dictionary definitions for iconoclast

iconoclast

/ (aɪˈkɒnəˌklæst) /

noun

a person who attacks established or traditional concepts, principles, laws, etc

a destroyer of religious images or sacred objects
an adherent of the heretical movement within the Greek Orthodox Church from 725 to 842 ad, which aimed at the destruction of icons and religious images

Derived Formsiconoclastic, adjectiveiconoclastically, adverb

Word Origin for iconoclast

C16: from Late Latin iconoclastes, from Late Greek eikonoklastes, from eikōn icon + klastēs breaker

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

Word Origin and History for iconoclast

iconoclast

"breaker or destroyer of images," 1590s, from French iconoclaste and directly from Medieval Latin iconoclastes, from Late Greek eikonoklastes, from eikon (genitive eikonos) "image" + klastes "breaker," from klas- past tense stem of klan "to break" (see clastic). Originally those in the Eastern Church in 8c. and 9c. whose mobs of followers destroyed icons and other religious objects on the grounds that they were idols. Applied to 16c.-17c. Protestants in Netherlands who vandalized former Catholic churches on similar grounds. Extended sense of "one who attacks orthodox beliefs or institutions" is first attested 1842.