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pagan

pagan

29 6.7
A person who follows an older religion with many gods, not Christianity, Judaism, or Islam
  • noun
  • /ˈpeɪɡən/
translation icon : pagano
  • His mother was a Christian, his father was a a Pagan, and there was this conflict with him.
  • pagan practices
  • pagan rituals
  • modern pagans

But if you were a Pagan, everyone could enslave you.

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Examples

  • The two ceremonies, the pagan and the Christian, create echoed responses to each other.

    Academic text (2008)
  • Catholic and Protestant, dissenter and pagan, the whole unruly gang of us.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • I'm not a pagan, but thanks all the same.

  • I am not sure if being a pagan gets one counted as being "religious" or not.

    Academic text (1997)
  • So he says, if we agree the pagans came to know some part of the truth, then one, we must ask how it happened.

  • There I met a number of pagans in a parking lot where they had set up camp.

    Academic text (2003)
  • And this was what the pagans celebrated.

  • The pagans worshipped Alexander as a God, and his tomb had been a place of Pagan worship for centuries.

  • By late antiquity, however, Christians, like their Pagan neighbors, wore black to funerals, a custom that has endured.

  • In ancient times, many pagans celebrated nature through various seasonal festivals.

Synonyms

heathen
vspagan
  • Offensive
38 8.7

A person who does not follow religions like Christianity, Judaism, or Islam

focuses on following polytheistic, ancient, or non-mainstream faiths rather than outsider label
Wiccan
vspagan
10 8.2

A person who follows Wicca and honors nature

is a broader label for many ancient, polytheistic, or non-mainstream faiths
polytheist
vspagan
1 7.4

A person who believes in or worships many gods

also includes ancient or non-mainstream religious identity, not only multiple gods
Hellenist
vspagan
9.6

A person who follows the ancient Greek religion and honors its gods

covers many polytheistic or non-mainstream faiths beyond just one culture

Antonyms

1 6.1

A person who believes there is only one God

1.0

A person who believes in Jesus Christ and follows his teachings

Compounds

A celebration from old religions before Christianity that marks seasonal events with dancing or bonfires

A set of beliefs and actions that worship many gods or nature

Beliefs and customs from older religions not part of the main world faiths, often with many gods

Stories and beliefs from ancient religions before Christianity

Surface Forms

pagan singular
pagans plural

Etymology

Pagan was first a word for a 'country person' in Latin paganus, and later it was used for someone who kept older or many-god beliefs. So today a pagan is a person who follows an ancient or non-mainstream religion.