apostasy

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noun apos·ta·sy \ ə-ˈpäs-tə-sē \

Definition of apostasy

plural apostasies

1 :an act of refusing to continue to follow, obey, or recognize a religious faith

2 :abandonment of a previous loyalty :defection

See apostasy defined for kids

Recent Examples of apostasy from the Web

After all, enormous numbers of people in the Muslim world believe in the death penalty for, among other things, blasphemy or apostasy.

— david french, National Review, "Journalists Overreach in Their Quest to Purge ‘Hate’ from the Web," 21 Aug. 2017
A treacherous President stood in the way; and it can be easily seen how reluctant good men might be to admit an apostasy which involved so much of baseness and ingratitude.

— frederick douglass, The Atlantic, "‘A Treacherous President Stood in the Way’," 16 Aug. 2017
Sexism, homophobia, the death penalty for apostasy … all of this is to be rationalized if the alternative is Islamophobia.

— andrew sullivan, Daily Intelligencer, "A Week of Reckoning," 28 July 2017
In 2009, David Frum, the former Bush administration speechwriter whose ideological apostasy was in its formative stages, met with conservative intellectuals to discuss the policy response to the great recession.

— jonathan chait, Daily Intelligencer, "Trumpcare Collapsed Because the Republican Party Cannot Govern," 18 July 2017
A takfiri is a Muslim who accuses another of apostasy — rhetoric not uncommon among certain Saudi imams when training their ire on Iran's Shiites.

— ishaan tharoor, Washington Post, "Trump embraces the Saudi vision for the Middle East," 22 May 2017
So when Richard Nixon announced his reliance in Keynesian ideas in planning the tax and spending proposals for the new fiscal year of July, 1971, many Republicans heard apostasy.

— edward lotterman, Twin Cities, "Real World Economics: Trumps’ ‘pump’ looks like liberal economics," 20 May 2017
The Pew Research Center found last year that, as of 2014, 26 percent of the world’s countries and territories had laws or policies against blasphemy, and 13 percent had laws or policies against apostasy, or rejecting religion entirely.

— mercury news editorial board, The Mercury News, "Editorial: Facebook must reject Pakistani blasphemy demand," 5 Apr. 2017
The group, which espouses a particular harsh interpretation of Islamic law, believes archaeological sites promote apostasy.

— nabih bulos, latimes.com, "Iraqi forces close in on historic mosque where Islamic State declared its 'caliphate'," 30 Mar. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'apostasy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of apostasy

Middle English apostasie, from Late Latin apostasia, from Greek, literally, revolt, from aphistasthai to revolt, from apo- + histasthai to stand — more at stand

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First Known Use: 14th century

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