religionism

American  

[ri-lij-uh-niz-uhm] / rɪˈlɪdʒ əˌnɪz əm /

noun

1. excessive or exaggerated religious zeal.

2. affected or pretended religious zeal.

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religionism British  

/ rɪˈlɪdʒəˌnɪzəm /

noun

1. extreme religious fervour

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Other Word Forms

• antireligionist noun
• religionist noun
• religionistic adjective

Etymology

Origin of religionism

First recorded in 1785–95; religion + -ism

Example Sentences

His doctrine of the Church had the disadvantage of an apparently intermediate and ambiguous position, refusing the broad, intelligible watchwords and reasonings of popular religionism.

From The Oxford Movement Twelve Years, 1833-1845 by Church, R. W. (Richard William)

His was an eclectic philosophy and religionism, of which all the elements were discoverable in old Hebrew books: scraps of Alexandrian philosophy inextricably blent with Aristotelian, Platonic, mystic.

From Children of the Ghetto A Study of a Peculiar People by Zangwill, Israel

But it is useful for us to know it, notwithstanding its background of gloomy religionism and its air of unreality; for it helps us to understand the character of Puritan women and of Philip Stubbes.

From Two Centuries of Costume in America, Volume 1 (1620-1820) by Earle, Alice Morse

One of the most marked features of these lectures is the deep feeling which the preacher had of the emptiness and hollowness of the conventional religionism of the day.

From Sermons Preached at Brighton Third Series by Robertson, Frederick William

It seeks not, therefore, the applause of men; and it shrinks from that spurious religionism whose prominent characters are talk, and pretension, and external observance, often accompanied by uncharitable censure.

From The Philosophy of the Moral Feelings by Abercrombie, John