syncretic

American  

[sin-kret-ik] / sɪnˈkrɛt ɪk /

Also syncretistic rarely syncretical

adjective

1. combining or bringing together different philosophical, religious, or cultural principles and practices.

   The Afro-Brazilian religion is syncretic, mingling the pantheon, practices, and beliefs brought to South America by enslaved Yorubans with the Catholicism of colonial European culture.

   Exceptional syncretic murals can be found at the site, the work of Indigenous artists who struggled with and adapted unfamiliar European subject matter after the Spanish Conquest.

2. Grammar. relating to or describing the merging of two or more inflectional categories into one.

   When word forms in a paradigm are syncretic, they can result in grammatical ambiguity because one form can have multiple functions.

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Etymology

Origin of syncretic

syncret(ism) ( def. ) + -ic

Example Sentences

The ritual is syncretic -- blending Mayan and Catholic traditions.

From Barron's • Oct. 22, 2025

As Portuguese Catholic colonists brought African slaves to Brazil, the enslaved men and women developed syncretic blends of their traditional religions with Catholicism, now practiced by a small minority of Brazilians.

From Seattle Times • May 15, 2024

The figure-grazing outfit, in some ways, embodies the syncretic form of Islam that developed in Indonesia, in which an Arabian faith brought by traders blended with animist, Hindu, Buddhist and other influences.

From New York Times • Jun. 30, 2023

At once heartbreaking and unapologetically strange, this is a cross-cultural, syncretic, folksy, razor-sharp narrative about the horrors of grief and the eternal debate over nature versus nurture.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 9, 2023

Religions: Roman Catholic 50%, Protestant 20%, Kimbanguist 10%, Muslim 10%, other syncretic sects and indigenous beliefs 10%

From The 2002 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency