Definitions

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

  • adjective Of or relating to heresy or heretics.
  • adjective Characterized by, revealing, or approaching departure from established beliefs or standards.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Containing or characterized by heresy; contrary to established opinions or principles; contrary to an accepted standard of religious faith.

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

  • adjective Containing heresy; of the nature of, or characterized by, heresy.

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

  • adjective Of or pertaining to heresy or heretics.
  • adjective Contrary to mainstream or accepted opinion.

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

  • adjective characterized by departure from accepted beliefs or standards

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English, from Middle French eretical and from Medieval Latin haereticalis, from haereticus. See heretic.

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Examples

  • MARTIN: What do you say to those who argue that this kind of discussion is, I'm not going to use the word heretical, because I think that has its own sort of theological meaning, but I mean it's cherry picking.

    Women Faith Leaders Struggle To Make It To The Top 2010

  • While the cults, sects, and small mindedness of the mobs grew, the loss of those with a real higher understanding became larger and larger, as they die and more control by the mobs, brainwashing in heretical ideas takes hold.

    Think Progress » NSA Whistleblower To Expose More Unlawful Activity: ‘People…Are Going To Be Shocked’ 2006

  • Yet I have never seen anyone committed to community-building undermine community development simply by the expression of heretical ideas.

    THE DIFFERENT DRUM M. SCOTT PECK 1987

  • Yet I have never seen anyone committed to community-building undermine community development simply by the expression of heretical ideas.

    THE DIFFERENT DRUM M. SCOTT PECK 1987

  • Moreover it seems to me atrocious that we who insist on seven millions of Catholics supporting a church they call heretical, should dare to talk of our scruples (conscientious scruples forsooth!) about assisting with a poor pittance of very insufficient charity their 'damnable idolatry.'

    The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Kenyon, Frederic G 1898

  • a church they call heretical, should _dare_ to talk of our scruples

    The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2) 1907

  • So here you have Scobak, an Orthodox rabbi who heads education for the world's most respected Jewish anti-missionary group, agreeing with my thesis which Rabbi Schochet, without a single source, calls heretical.

    Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: What Is Motivating The Global Ban On 'Kosher Jesus'? Rabbi Shmuley Boteach 2012

  • So here you have Scobak, an Orthodox rabbi who heads education for the world's most respected Jewish anti-missionary group, agreeing with my thesis which Rabbi Schochet, without a single source, calls heretical.

    Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: What Is Motivating The Global Ban On 'Kosher Jesus'? Rabbi Shmuley Boteach 2012

  • So here you have Scobak, an Orthodox rabbi who heads education for the world's most respected Jewish anti-missionary group, agreeing with my thesis which Rabbi Schochet, without a single source, calls heretical.

    Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: What Is Motivating The Global Ban On 'Kosher Jesus'? Rabbi Shmuley Boteach 2012

  • The early-Christian "Jesus cult" was very different from the organized Christianity of our own age, as Elaine Pagels showed in this classic study of the so-called "heretical" traditions of Christianity in the first few centuries after Jesus' death—that is to say, all those diverse traditions that the church establishment later took care to brand as wrong.

    Five Best: Religious Cults In Antiquity Mary Beard 2011

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