Protestantism
Americannoun
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the religion of Protestants.
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the Protestant churches collectively.
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adherence to Protestant principles.
noun
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the religion or religious system of any of the Churches of Western Christendom that are separated from the Roman Catholic Church and adhere substantially to principles established by Luther, Calvin, etc, in the Reformation
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the Protestant Churches collectively
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adherence to the principles of the Reformation
Other Word Forms
- anti-Protestantism noun
- pro-Protestantism noun
Etymology
Origin of Protestantism
First recorded in 1640–50; Protestant + -ism
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.
A wave of conversions to Protestantism and a surge of defections to secularism have weakened the church’s once-ironclad hold.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 20, 2026
This duality of the natural and spiritual world is not wholly unique to radical Protestantism, but it has certainly showed up in a variety of deleterious ways.
From Salon • May 26, 2025
He says there is an "inherited fault line" on Irish immigration, Irish Catholicism and Scottish Protestantism in the west coast, which goes back to the 19th Century.
From BBC • Aug. 10, 2024
Ufology, like Protestantism, is a big-tent religion, and “A lot of this overlaps,” Janix said.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 4, 2024
He didn’t mean to start a breakaway church, but within a few decades swathes of Europe had switched to one form of Protestantism or another.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
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.
