iconoclast

[ahy-kon-uh-klast]

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.

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

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

Synonyms for iconoclast

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR iconoclast ON THESAURUS.COM

1. nonconformist, rebel, dissenter, radical.

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

Related Words for iconoclast

unbeliever, questioner, dissenter, heretic, radical, dissident, nonbeliever, critic, rebel, revolutionist, cynic, sceptic, ruiner, non-conformist

Examples from the Web for iconoclast

Contemporary Examples of 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

Historical Examples of iconoclast

I am an iconoclast and have broken my god and cannot put together the pieces.
Outdoor Sketching
Francis Hopkinson Smith
I would like to say that I have no fear of the odium of the designation of iconoclast.
Mother Earth, Vol. 1 No. 2, April 1906
Various
There is no iconoclast in the world like an extreme Mohammedan.
A Desert Drama
A. Conan Doyle
There was nothing of the revolutionary or the iconoclast about him.
The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Galatians
G. G. Findlay
Oliver Cromwell wasn't as moral as Anabel is—nor such an iconoclast.
Touch and Go
D. H. Lawrence

British Dictionary definitions for iconoclast

iconoclast

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

"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.