heretics

noun

plural of heretic
1
as in dissenters
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

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in mavericks
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

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of heretics As Democratic heretics go, Representative Dan Goldman isn’t guilty of many crimes against his party. — Russell Berman, The Atlantic, 7 June 2026 Those who don’t cling to the faith are heretics. — Kerry Jackson, Oc Register, 4 Feb. 2026 Among those applauding at the end was Carmen Chaplin, one of the director’s granddaughters, and even heretics, whose faith in Chaplin is fickle, will have been swept along. — Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2025 During the Middle Ages, the church endorsed the execution of heretics and held firm that secular authorities could and should put people to death for serious crimes. — Austin Sarat, The Conversation, 9 July 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for heretics
  1. dissenters
  2. mavericks
  3. dissidents
  4. iconoclasts
  5. deviants
  6. nonconformists
Noun
  • Three of the 12 members on the Fed's policymaking board voted in favor of a rate hike, marking the largest number of dissenters casting ballots in the same direction since 2016.
    — Max Zahn, ABC News, 30 July 2026
  • Felix Feather, economist at Aberdeen, said the increase in dissenters from two to three shows concerns over inflation risks are now spreading within the committee — raising the likelihood of rate hikes if inflation doesn’t ease further.
    — Hugh Leask, CNBC, 30 July 2026
Definition of dissenters
Noun
  • Carl Anka Trent Alexander-Arnold’s England career is a fascinating case study in why team sports can prefer the orthodox to the mavericks.
    — The Athletic UK Staff, New York Times, 13 May 2026
  • The confluence at Black Mountain of émigré artists like Josef and Anni Albers with homegrown mavericks like John Cage and Buckminster Fuller (who constructed his first geodesic dome there) marked an early flowering of this mode of learning, which was still in fine health decades later.
    — Christopher Benfey, The New York Review of Books, 19 Apr. 2026
Definition of mavericks
Noun
  • However, the Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Iran – which laid out a long-term pathway to peace – made no mention of protesters, persecuted dissidents or human rights.
    — Mustafa Qadri, CNN Money, 28 July 2026
  • But Alicia soon begins to suspect that her daughter is one of the children grotesquely stolen from the desaparecidos, dissidents disappeared by the country’s authoritarian junta, and that her husband might be in on the repugnant scheme.
    — David Faris, TheWeek, 27 July 2026
Definition of dissidents
Noun
  • Primus’ Bay Area cult following snowballed into a deal with Virgin offshoot Caroline Records for their studio debut, 1990’s Frizzle Fry, which established Primus as irresistible genre iconoclasts.
    — Sasha Geffen, Pitchfork, 2 Aug. 2026
  • By the early 1990s, Eugene had earned itself a reputation as a beacon of progressive-minded irreverence, drawing a pungent mix of weirdos, iconoclasts, and freethinkers.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 10 July 2026
Definition of iconoclasts
Noun
  • Cool people aren't merely deviants.
    — Caleb Warren, CNBC, 20 Aug. 2025
Definition of deviants
Noun
  • At least Guillén still speaks his mind on the Sox’s pre- and postgame shows, so maybe there’s hope for nonconformists after all.
    — Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune, 22 Mar. 2026
Definition of nonconformists

Browse Nearby Words

heretical
heretics
heretofore
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Cite this Entry

“Heretics.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/heretics. Accessed 10 Aug. 2026.

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