schismatic 1 of 2

variants also schismatical

schismatic

2 of 2

noun

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 schismatic
Adjective
Such was the case this past weekend, when tens of millions of fans keyed in on the denouement of the college basketball season at the expense of lesser spectacles such as spring football and one notoriously schismatic pro golf startup. Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 9 Apr. 2025 The potential members of a schismatic Catholic sect are located in areas of the world such as the United States, where the church has significant financial resources and assets, plus a wide array of independent Catholic institutions that operate largely outside the hierarchy of the church. Massimo Faggioli, Foreign Affairs, 11 Oct. 2018 But Barzani’s setback only birthed a schismatic new cadre of Kurdish leaders. Behnam Ben Taleblu, Foreign Affairs, 8 Nov. 2017 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
Noun
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for schismatic
Adjective
  • Despite some instances of sectarian violence, unresolved issues of inclusive governance, needed reforms in law and questions over commitment to counterterrorism, al-Sharaa is appealing to Trump and the West as Syria’s preferred partner compared with Russia, Iran and China.
    Laura Kelly, The Hill, 15 May 2025
  • Police in Northern Ireland sporadically come under attack whenever tensions rise in parts of the British region, 27 years after a peace deal ended three decades of sectarian bloodshed there.
    Reuters, NBC news, 11 June 2025
Noun
  • The feminist separatists were overwhelmingly white and, like many white feminists of preceding generations, not all shared Dunbar-Ortiz’s commitment to racial justice.
    Hazlitt, Hazlitt, 11 June 2025
  • Russia was occupying our land and backing armed separatists, but Ukraine was told to negotiate.
    Tetiana Kotelnykova, The Atlantic, 25 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • And, of course, my fantasy went right to some kind of renegade character along the lines of Saw Gerrera.
    Dalton Ross, EW.com, 16 May 2025
  • The director Doris Wishman was a renegade: a woman who made lurid exploitation films at a time when American underground cinema was a man’s playground.
    Erik Piepenburg, New York Times, 2 June 2025

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Schismatic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/schismatic. Accessed 4 Jul. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!