In 1935, Pope Pius XI openly supported the invasion of Ethiopia as a crusade against a country of heretics, schismatics, pagans, and infidels.—Ian Campbell, Foreign Affairs, 22 Feb. 2022 This situation has arisen because the head of state, President Poroshenko, turned to the patriarch in Constantinople to give autocephaly to the schismatics.—Fred Weir, The Christian Science Monitor, 17 Apr. 2019 How much backing the schismatics might have among AK voters is unclear.—The Economist, 6 June 2019 In 1997 the patriarch of the Russian church excommunicated him and declared his followers schismatics.—Michael Khodarkovsky, WSJ, 30 Sep. 2018
Adjective
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which didn't recognize the authority of the Russian church and had been regarded as schismatic, was granted full recognition in 2019 by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Orthodoxy's top authority.—Compiled Bydemocrat-Gazette Stafffrom Wire Reports, arkansasonline.com, 26 Dec. 2023 The necessarily schismatic nature of the civil-rights movement, encompassing godless socialists as well as evangelical Christians, was exactly the right place for someone with a Friends background to flourish.—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 6 Nov. 2023 Novatian: one of an early Christian schismatic sect existing from A.D. 251 to the 6th or 7th century that denied that the church should restore lapsed Christians to membership and advocated a rigidly purist conception of church membership.—Dallas News, 1 June 2022 The fracture widens and hardens—fanatic, schismatic, idiotic.—Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 7 Nov. 2022 The calls-and-responses between strings and winds in the middle of the first movement dramatically seesawed tempos, whetting Tchaikovsky’s schismatic emotional contrasts to sharp points.—Hannah Edgar, Chicago Tribune, 28 June 2022 This decree reversed the policy of Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, who in 2007 loosened restrictions on the Latin Mass in order to improve relations with schismatic traditionalist groups, according to the National Catholic Reporter.—Grayson Quay, The Week, 19 Dec. 2021 Benedict issued his document in 2007 to reach out to a breakaway, schismatic group that celebrates the Latin Mass, the Society of St. Pius X, which had split from Rome over the modernizing reforms of Vatican II.—Arkansas Online, 17 July 2021 Benedict had issued his document in 2007 to reach out to a breakaway, schismatic group that celebrates the Latin Mass, the Society of St. Pius X, and which had split from Rome over the modernizing reforms of Vatican II.—Fox News, 16 July 2021
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'schismatic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English scismatyk, sysmatyke, borrowed from Anglo-French and Late Latin; Anglo-French scismatic, scismatike, borrowed from Late Latin scismaticus, schismaticus, borrowed from Late Greek schismatikós, noun derivative of schismatikós, adjective, "of a schism" — more at schismatic entry 2
Adjective
Middle English scismatike, borrowed from Middle French and Late Latin; Middle French scismatique, borrowed from Late Latin scismaticus, schismaticus, borrowed from Late Greek schismatikós, from schismat-, schísma "dissension in religion" (going back to Greek, "cleft, division") + Greek -ikos-ic entry 1 — more at schism
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