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
Derived Forms
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.
He was brought up in Protestantism, to which was often attributed his austere demeanour, but gave up religion in his teens.
From BBC • Mar. 23, 2026
The rising cohorts of women’s-rights campaigners bore less of an imprint of the orthodox Protestantism than those of Stanton’s generation and had no interest in editing the Bible.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026
Ufology, like Protestantism, is a big-tent religion, and “A lot of this overlaps,” Janix said.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 4, 2024
There is also a a strand of research that looks at Protestantism, another European import that is supposed to be related.
From Salon • Jul. 22, 2023
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.
