Definitions

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

  • noun An adherent of Unitarian Universalism.
  • noun A monotheist who is not a Christian.
  • noun A Christian who is not a Trinitarian.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or relating to a unit or unity, or to one thing or plan or party; unitary.
  • [capitalized] Of or pertaining to the Unitarians or their doctrines.
  • noun [capitalized] One who maintains the unipersonality of the Deity; one who denies the doctrine of the Trinity; specifically, a member of a Christian body founded upon the doctrine of unipersonality.
  • noun A monotheist; a believer in one God, as opposed to a polytheist, or a believer in many gods. In this sense it is applicable to all Christians, Jews, and Mohammedans, as well as deists.
  • noun A monist.
  • noun One who advocates any unitary system; an advocate of unity; in politics, an advocate of centralization.

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

  • adjective Of or pertaining to Unitarians, or their doctrines.
  • noun (Theol.) One who denies the doctrine of the Trinity, believing that God exists only in one person; a unipersonalist; also, one of a denomination of Christians holding this belief.
  • noun One who rejects the principle of dualism.
  • noun rare A monotheist.

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

  • noun A Christian who does not believe in the traditional doctrine of the Trinity.
  • noun A follower of Unitarian Universalism; or a member of a Unitarian Universalist Church in North America who adhered to, or identifies with, the Unitarian part of that church prior to consolidation in 1961.
  • noun rare A Muslim, Jew or other kind of monotheist who is not a Christian.
  • noun A member of a certain political movement, especially the Unitarios of nineteenth century Argentina (known as the Unitarian Party in English).
  • adjective Pertaining to Unitarianism

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

  • noun adherent of Unitarianism
  • adjective of or relating to or characterizing Unitarianism

Etymologies

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

[From New Latin ūnitārius, monotheist, from Latin ūnitās, unity; see unity.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Related to New Latin unitarius (from Latin unitas ("unity")) +‎ -an. First documented as unitaria religio, in a decree of the Diet of Lécfalva (1600). In English since 1687

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Unitarian.

Examples

  • Ultimacy is the term Unitarian Universalist James Luther Adams used to describe a desire to be lifted up-beyond the mundane, ordinary, even human dimensions of our lives.

    From First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Antonio 2008

  • I think this way of explaining and understanding our faith, an easy assumption just from the word Unitarian, is widespread among folks who don't consider it all that important to read our history or delve into what seem like arcane theological treatises.

    Philocrites: Isaac Newton's anti-Trinitarianism in the news. 2007

  • In most of the stories, Puffer was described as a Unitarian who had become a Christian Scientist, which, the reporters claimed, accounted for her belief that, as she told them, “all is spirit” and mere differences of color or age were inconsequential in the pursuit of a “perfect spiritual union.”

    Savage Peace Ann Hagedorn 2007

  • In most of the stories, Puffer was described as a Unitarian who had become a Christian Scientist, which, the reporters claimed, accounted for her belief that, as she told them, “all is spirit” and mere differences of color or age were inconsequential in the pursuit of a “perfect spiritual union.”

    Savage Peace Ann Hagedorn 2007

  • In most of the stories, Puffer was described as a Unitarian who had become a Christian Scientist, which, the reporters claimed, accounted for her belief that, as she told them, “all is spirit” and mere differences of color or age were inconsequential in the pursuit of a “perfect spiritual union.”

    Savage Peace Ann Hagedorn 2007

  • I understand that the terms Unitarian and Universalist have particular and important meanings to some of us.

    Philocrites: Uh oh, here come the Unitarians and Universalists! 2007

  • I've been using technorati to search for blogs with the word Unitarian in it and at least half of the resulting posts are not from UU's but from people who have taken that beliefnet quiz and come up Unitarian.

    Philocrites: Around the UU blogs, with G.A. dining news! 2006

  • I also have in mind the fact that our churches can only sometimes take credit for giving us the worldview we call Unitarian Universalist: Those of us who converted are often right when we say that "We were Unitarians without knowing it" because be embraced the worldview before we found the church.

    Philocrites: Counterculture in 'Knocking on Heaven's Door.' 2006

  • Early on in American Unitarian history (probably with Theodore Parker) the idea emerged that the church oppressed its own members (or, more accurately, its ministers) when it expected some degree of doctrinal conformity within the church, even though no political coercion was involved.

    Philocrites: September 2003 Archives 2003

  • Baltimore in 1819, the word Unitarian, accepted by the liberals with some misgiving, became the recognized motto of the new creed.

    The American Spirit in Literature : a chronicle of great interpreters Bliss Perry 1907

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.