paganism

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: pa‧gan‧ism

Noun

Singular paganism

Plural paganisms

1. A kind of religion. Paganism has more than one meaing:
   1. Any religion other than Christianity, Judaism, or Islam. This is most often a religion of ancient Europe, but has been used for other religions.

      Ancient Greek Paganism was replaced by Christianity before the fall of the Roman Empire.

      Taoism, Hinduism, and shamanism are sometime called paganism.

      Atheism is not paganism because it is not religious.

   2. A religion that is based on nature. Often this is used for new religions called neo-paganism.

      Wicca and Asatru are different kinds of paganism.

Related words

• pagan
• neo-pagan
• neo-paganism
• meso-paganism
• paleo-paganism

See also

• polytheism