Protestant

[prot-uh-stuhnt, pruh-tes-tuhnt]

noun

1. any Western Christian who is not an adherent of a Catholic, Anglican, or Eastern Church.

2. an adherent of any of those Christian bodies that separated from the Church of Rome during the Reformation, or of any group descended from them, usually excluding the Anabaptists.

3. (originally) any of the German princes who protested against the decision of the Diet of Speyer in 1529, which had denounced the Reformation.

4. protestant, a person who protests.

adjective

1. belonging or relating to Protestants or their religion.

2. protestant. protesting.

Protestant

/ ˈprɒtɪstənt /

noun

1. 1. an adherent of Protestantism

   2. ( as modifier )

      the Protestant Church

Protestant

1. A Christian belonging to one of the three great divisions of Christianity (the other two are the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church). Protestantism began during the Renaissance as a protest against the established (Roman Catholic) church (see also established church). That protest, led by Martin Luther, was called the Reformation, because it sprang from a desire to reform the church and cleanse it of corruption, such as the selling of indulgences.

Protestants hold a great variety of beliefs, but they are united in rejecting the authority of the pope. Protestant groups include the Amish, the Anglican Communion, the Assemblies of God, the Baptists, Christian Science, the Congregationalists, the Lutheran Church, the Mennonites, the Methodists, the Presbyterian Church, and the Quakers.

Other Word Forms

• anti-Protestant adjective
• non-Protestant adjective
• pro-Protestant adjective
• unprotestant adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Protestant¹

First recorded in 1530–40; from French or German, from Latin prōtestantēs “bearing public witness,” plural of present participle of prōtestārī “to bear public witness”; protest

Example Sentences

From the Protestant work ethic to “rage quitting,” American attitudes about their work are driven by its promise of prosperity—and its precarious nature, writes Lindsay Ellis.

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His journey — from a nominal Protestant upbringing through atheism, to converting to Catholicism in 2019 — and frequent appeals to “Christian values” position him firmly with the GOP’s religious-right base.

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An atlas of eastern Austria divides the population to show Catholics in red, Protestants in blue, Jews in yellow and Roma in black.

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A cohort of German Protestant thinkers such as Friedrich Schleiermacher theorized religion similarly—change was now progress, and liberal society clearly the heir to medieval religion.

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In Mr. Persico’s account, the Protestant Reformation completed the project that Genesis began, entrenching individual autonomy and selfhood in Western culture.

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