anathema

noun

anath·​e·​ma ə-ˈna-thə-mə 

1

a

: someone or something intensely disliked or loathed

—usually used as a predicate nominative

… this notion was anathema to most of his countrymen.

—Stephen Jay Gould

b

: one that is cursed by ecclesiastical authority

2

a

: a ban or curse solemnly pronounced by ecclesiastical authority and accompanied by excommunication

b

: the denunciation of something as accursed

c

: a vigorous denunciation : curse

Did you know?

Word History of Anathema

The Greek root of anathema originally meant simply “a thing devoted” or “an offering,” and in the Old Testament it could refer to either revered objects or objects representing destruction brought about in the name of the Lord, such as the weapons of an enemy. Since the enemy’s objects therefore became symbols of what was reviled or unholy, the neutral meaning of “a thing devoted” became “a thing devoted to evil” or “curse.”

In Latin, it could refer to both an excommunication and the person who has been excommunicated.

In the early Church, anathema was used interchangeably with excommunication and to refer to unrepentant heretics. It then came to mean the severest form of excommunication in official church writings. When the authority of Rome was split in the Great Schism between Eastern and Western churches in 1054, an anathema was issued by Rome against the Eastern Patriarch who then issued another one against the cardinal who delivered it.

Synonyms

• curse

Examples of anathema in a Sentence

Maugham was not only prolific but also a best-seller, though snobs dismissed his work as middlebrow (a category that few people worry about in our day but that once was anathema). —Edmund White, New York Review of Books, 12 Feb. 2009

While everything pointed to an immense flood, Bretz knew such a notion would be anathema to his fellow geologists. In part that was because the quantity of water needed for such a flood would exceed the flow of all the world's modern rivers combined. —Richard Lovett, New Scientist, 21-27 Apr. 2007

Big Jeff was devoted to Purcell. He haunted his room and patiently endured his abuse just to sit in the corner and watch him shave or do push-ups or dress for dinner, and listen to him pronounce his opinions and anathemas. —Tobias Wolff, Old School, 2003

For all the artistic wonders it has preserved, the Holy Mountain is not a museum, and the idea of playing host to sightseers is anathema to the monks. Male visitors of all faiths are welcome, but they come as pilgrims, not tourists, and only 110 "residence permits" are issued each day by patristic officials in Ouranoupolis. —Nicholas Basbanes, Smithsonian, August 1999

a politician who is anathema to conservatives

ideas that are an anathema to me

Recent Examples on the Web

Colossal’s functional species concept is anathema to the Endangered Species Act. —Alex Erwin, The Conversation, 6 June 2025

As for the state’s longer-term financial picture, the kind of deeper cuts Republicans espouse are anathema to Pritzker and the legislature’s Democratic supermajority. —Dan Petrella, Chicago Tribune, 2 June 2025

China’s regulatory framework and especially its draconian rules regarding data transfers are anathema to foreign partners. —Charlie Campbell, Time, 29 May 2025

In years past, such an idea might have been an anathema. —Brian Steinberg, Variety, 27 May 2025

Word History

Etymology

Late Latin anathemat-, anathema, from Greek, thing devoted to evil, curse, from anatithenai to set up, dedicate, from ana- + tithenai to place, set — more at do

First Known Use

1582, in the meaning defined at sense 1b

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Kids Definition

anathema

noun

anath·​e·​ma ə-ˈnath-ə-mə 

1

a

: a ban or curse declared by church authority and accompanied by excommunication

b

: curse entry 1 sense 1

2

: a person or thing that is cursed or strongly disliked

taxation without representation was anathema to the colonists