variants
also schismatical
as in sectarian
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Dissimilar Words
as in separatist
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Dissimilar Words
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Recent Examples of schismatic
Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 9 Apr. 2025
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
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
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 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
Ian Campbell, Foreign Affairs, 22 Feb. 2022
How much backing the schismatics might have among AK voters is unclear.
—The Economist, 6 June 2019
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
In 1997 the patriarch of the Russian church excommunicated him and declared his followers schismatics.
—Michael Khodarkovsky, WSJ, 30 Sep. 2018
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 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
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
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 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
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
How much backing the schismatics might have among AK voters is unclear.
—The Economist, 6 June 2019
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
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
-
Syria has experienced a wave of sectarian violence since the revolution to overthrow Assad.—
Chris Massaro,
FOXNews.com,
24 Sep. 2025
-
Its leaders seek to exploit the country’s sectarian and ideological divisions to recruit new fighters and rebuild their caliphate.—
Caroline Rose,
Foreign Affairs,
18 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Then gas deliveries resumed only to Transnistria, the pro-Russian separatist enclave in Moldova’s east.—
Dan Perry,
MSNBC Newsweek,
23 Sep. 2025
-
At the end of April 2022, the Russian army moved the Kuindzhi Art Museum's entire collection to a museum in the capital of the Donetsk People's Republic, a separatist and politically unrecognized territory annexed by Russia.—
Yegor Mostovshikov,
The Dial,
9 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Skarsgård has long been a red carpet renegade, showing flashes of that playful freak that lives within.—
Anna Cafolla,
Vogue,
3 Oct. 2025
-
With a running time of 191 minutes, Grindhouse was meant to be a celebration of the exploitation cinema on which the two renegade directors grew up.—
Anthony D'Alessandro,
Deadline,
28 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Schismatic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/schismatic. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
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