infidel
Americannoun
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Religion. a person who does not accept a particular faith, especially Christianity or Islam.
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a person who has no religious faith; unbeliever.
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(loosely) a person who disbelieves or doubts a particular theory, belief, creed, etc.; skeptic.
When it came to ghosts, he was a self-confessed infidel.
adjective
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Often Disparaging and Offensive. not accepting a particular faith, especially Christianity or Islam.
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without religious faith.
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Also infidelic of, relating to, or characteristic of unbelievers.
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relating to or showing unbelief.
Our infidel ideas about artificial intelligence make us pariahs in the academic community.
noun
adjective
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rejecting a specific religion, esp Christianity or Islam
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of, characteristic of, or relating to unbelievers or unbelief
Related Words
See agnostic.
Etymology
Origin of infidel
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English, from Late Latin infidēlis “unbelieving,” Latin: “unfaithful, treacherous”; in- 3, feal ( def. )
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.
“Word battles were wild and furious; and Liberal soon became known, not only as an infidel or atheist town, but as a very strange town,” author J.P.
From Washington Times • Jan. 8, 2017
Its slickest publication had been Dabiq, a magazine named for a Syrian town where, in the seventh century, Armageddon was prophesied to play out in an apocalyptic battle with infidel forces from the Roman Empire.
From The New Yorker • Dec. 4, 2016
He proudly calls himself an infidel and a deplorable.
From New York Times • Nov. 4, 2016
There was an assumption that they would be greeted as liberators, rather than infidel invaders - as shown by the removal of hard hats for soft berets in the early stages of occupation.
From BBC • Jul. 4, 2016
In “the fair and fertile isle of Andalusia” the Gothic king Roderick was aroused from his luxurious life in Toledo to lead his army in gallant, but vain, attempt to repel the infidel invaders.
From Pioneers of Evolution from Thales to Huxley With an Intermediate Chapter on the Causes of Arrest of the Movement by Clodd, Edward
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.
