Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The worship of or belief in more than one god.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Belief in more gods than one; the doctrine of a plurality of divine beings superior to man, and having part in the government of the world.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The doctrine of, or belief in, a plurality of gods.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The belief of the existence of many gods.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun belief in multiple Gods

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French polythéisme, from Greek polutheos, polytheistic : polu-, poly- + theos, god; see dhēs- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French polythéisme (ca. 1580), English from the early 17th century, a learned formation from poly- (πολύς (polús, "many")) and -theism (θεός (theós, "god")) (poly- +‎ theism).

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Examples

  • Marie's point about gaining an extra arena of potential conflict (gods v. gods) with polytheism is an interesting one -- also interesting to see some people address the question of whether or not the religion (s) of the tale are true, within the context of the tale.

    MIND MELD: Gods by the Bushel 2009

  • One of the advantages of polytheism is that it creates some flexibility.

    April 2009 2009

  • One of the advantages of polytheism is that it creates some flexibility.

    MIND MELD: Gods by the Bushel 2009

  • It is a bit of a difficulty in polytheism to to rank the gods.

    soooo… « Love | Peace | Ohana 2008

  • I would also join the Unitarian Universalists because one thing I worry about regarding polytheism is cultural appropriation of other people’s faiths.

    soooo… « Love | Peace | Ohana 2008

  • By contrast, the idea of polytheism, or the worship of multiple deities -- whether practiced by Hindus, Buddhists, Africans, Greeks, Romans, or American Indians -- far from being a primitive theological throwback provides a much more credible explanation for the nature of the universe and the behavior of humankind.

    Robert Brustein: Monotonous Monotheism 2008

  • I think most LDS folk would take issue with the notion of polytheism as well, since they have the same language in their creed that the Baptists use – but I would leave that up to LDS scholars.

    The missing missing links: a challenge - The Panda's Thumb 2005

  • Whether that be so, or whether, as is now more generally believed, the polytheism is the aboriginal Indian plant into which the pantheistic idea has been grafted as communities have become brahmanised, the pantheistic idea very readily presents itself to the mind of the educated Hindu.

    New Ideas in India During the Nineteenth Century A Study of Social, Political, and Religious Developments John Morrison

  • Galilee with theriomorphic polytheism, that is, the tendency to embody the qualities of divinity in animal forms.

    The Ancient East 1894

  • After this, beginning with the third chapter, follows a criticism of polytheism, that is, the false theology of the barbarians,

    History of Dogma, Volume 2 (of 7) Adolph Harnack 1890

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