1
as in dissenter
a person who believes, teaches, or advocates something opposed to accepted beliefs
Galileo was condemned as a heretic for supporting Copernicus's thesis that the earth revolves around the sun and not vice versa
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in maverick
a person who does not conform to generally accepted standards or customs
he's the ultimate heretic: a Yankees fan living deep in the heart of the Red Sox Nation
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of heretic
Among these men are many violent extremists who consider Syria’s minorities—including Alawites and Christians, as well as Druze and Kurds—to be heretics.
—
Robert F. Worth, The Atlantic, 18 July 2025
Young Morrison got a harsh lesson in how things are done in a blue state: Liberal groupthink is gospel, dissenters are heretics who should be hushed.
—Boston Herald Editorial Staff, Boston Herald, 28 May 2025
The witch in question is Jovovich’s Gray Alys, introduced on the brink of being hanged as a heretic by Ash (Arly Jover), a fervent enforcer in a dystopian future ruled by both a royal house and cult-like church.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 6 Mar. 2025
This approach demands that those who were once secular priests—the leaders of the philanthropic sector—abandon their cassocks and accept the mantle of the heretic.
—Mark Malloch-Brown, Foreign Affairs, 15 Jan. 2024
See All Example Sentences for heretic
Robert F. Worth, The Atlantic, 18 July 2025
Young Morrison got a harsh lesson in how things are done in a blue state: Liberal groupthink is gospel, dissenters are heretics who should be hushed.
—Boston Herald Editorial Staff, Boston Herald, 28 May 2025
The witch in question is Jovovich’s Gray Alys, introduced on the brink of being hanged as a heretic by Ash (Arly Jover), a fervent enforcer in a dystopian future ruled by both a royal house and cult-like church.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 6 Mar. 2025
This approach demands that those who were once secular priests—the leaders of the philanthropic sector—abandon their cassocks and accept the mantle of the heretic.
—Mark Malloch-Brown, Foreign Affairs, 15 Jan. 2024
See All Example Sentences for heretic
Recent Examples of Synonyms for heretic
Noun
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What’s safe for Jews was itself a matter of disagreement among the bill’s backers and dissenters.—
CalMatters,
Mercury News,
14 Oct. 2025
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Jerusalem — On a hot Friday morning in September, dozens of Israelis turned up at Gaza’s border fence – not as soldiers, but as dissenters.—
Zeena Saifi,
CNN Money,
5 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The Ford Maverick is a maverick in more ways than one, debuting as one of the few standard hybrid trucks on the market.—
Charles Singh,
USA Today,
24 Oct. 2025
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The end result of their work is a rallying cry for filmmakers pushing against calcified thinking and conventional wisdom — and unsurprisingly, Pellington says that working on the documentary put him back in touch with the fearless twentysomething maverick inside of him.—
Jim Hemphill,
IndieWire,
16 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Five other members of the ring were jailed for a total of about 40 years, all accused of gathering detailed information on journalists, dissidents and Ukrainian soldiers being trained at a US military base in Germany.—
Nick Paton Walsh,
CNN Money,
16 Oct. 2025
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Also not fitting the West’s preconceptions was the fact that most Soviet dissidents didn’t reject socialism.—
Matthew Wills,
JSTOR Daily,
3 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Paso Robles is independent, even a bit renegade.—
Justin Goldman,
AFAR Media,
24 Oct. 2025
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For years, Hollywood content creators have warned about piracy, whether through bootleg VHS tapes, or BitTorrent, or renegade streaming providers.—
Dominic Patten,
Deadline,
9 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The portrait that emerges from Kroll’s reporting is that of a man who is equal parts government technocrat, political operator and zealous iconoclast.—
Lisa Riordan Seville,
ProPublica,
17 Oct. 2025
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Both men were iconoclasts who took MTV’s money and ran with it, adopting a collage approach to the news in which information was conveyed to the audience without the intermediary of an anchor or host, often with cuts that allowed shots to play out for only a fraction of a second.—
Jim Hemphill,
IndieWire,
16 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Heretic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/heretic. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
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