pa·gan

(pā′gən)

1. An adherent of a polytheistic religion in antiquity, especially when viewed in contrast to an adherent of a monotheistic religion.

2. A Neopagan.

3. Offensive

a. One who has no religion.

b. An adherent of a religion other than Judaism, Christianity, or Islam.

4. A hedonist.

[Middle English, from Late Latin pāgānus, from Latin, country-dweller, civilian, from pāgus, country, rural district; see pag- in Indo-European roots.]

pa′gan adj.

pa′gan·dom (-dəm) n.

pa′gan·ism n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

pagan

(ˈpeɪɡən)

1. (Theology) a member of a group professing a polytheistic religion or any religion other than Christianity, Judaism, or Islam

2. a person without any religion; heathen

adj

3. (Theology) of or relating to pagans or their faith or worship

4. heathen; irreligious

[C14: from Church Latin pāgānus civilian (hence, not a soldier of Christ), from Latin: countryman, villager, from pāgus village]

ˈpagandom n

ˈpaganish adj

ˈpaganism n

ˈpaganist adj, n

ˌpaganˈistic adj

ˌpaganˈistically adv

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

pa•gan

(ˈpeɪ gən)

n.

1. one of a people or community observing a polytheistic religion, as the ancient Romans and Greeks.

2. a person who is not a Christian, Jew, or Muslim; heathen.

3. an irreligious or hedonistic person.

adj.

4. of or pertaining to pagans or their religion.

5. irreligious or hedonistic.

[1325–75; Middle English < Medieval Latin, Late Latin pāgānus worshiper of false gods, orig. civilian (i.e., not a soldier of Christ), Latin: peasant, n. use of pāgānus rural, civilian, derivative of pāgus village, rural district; see -an¹]

pa′gan•ish, adj.

pa′gan•ism, n.

pa′gan•dom, n.

syn: See heathen.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	pagan - a person who does not acknowledge your god gentile, heathen, infidel nonreligious person - a person who does not manifest devotion to a deity paynim - a heathen; a person who is not a Christian (especially a Muslim) idol worshiper, idolater, idoliser, idolizer - a person who worships idols
	2.	pagan - a person who follows a polytheistic or pre-Christian religion (not a Christian or Muslim or Jew) religious person - a person who manifests devotion to a deity Wiccan, witch - a believer in Wicca
	3.	pagan - someone motivated by desires for sensual pleasures hedonist, pleasure seeker sensualist - a person who enjoys sensuality Corinthian, man-about-town, playboy - a man devoted to the pursuit of pleasure
Adj.	1.	pagan - not acknowledging the God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam heathen, heathenish, ethnic irreligious - hostile or indifferent to religion

pagan

adjective

1. heathen, infidel, irreligious, polytheistic, idolatrous, heathenish Britain's ancient pagan heritage

noun

1. heathen, infidel, unbeliever, polytheist, idolater He has been a practising pagan for years.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

عابِد الأوثانوَثَني

pohan

hedenskhedning

heidnisch Heide Heidin

ειδωλολάτρης παγανιστής παγανιστικός παγανός ειδωλολatrikós

pagano

pakanapakanallinenuuspakana

païen

istentelenpogány

heiîingi; trúleysingiheiîinn

pagano

pagoniųpagonybėstabmeldys

heiden

языческий язычник

异教徒异教徒的

pagan

[ˈpeɪgən]

A. ADJ → pagano

B. N → pagano/a m/f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

pagan

[ˈpeɪgən]

adj [gods, religion, traditions, beliefs] → païen(ne)

n → païen(ne) m/f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

pagan

adj → heidnisch

n → Heide m, → Heidin f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

pagan

[ˈpeɪgən] adj & n → pagano/a

pagan

(ˈpeigən) adjective

not belonging to any of the major world religions. pagan tribes; pagan gods.

noun

a person who does not belong to any of the major world religions.

ˈpaganism noun

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

And besides all this, there was a certain lofty bearing about the Pagan, which even his uncouthness could not altogether maim.

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The whole feeling of the poem is not Christian, but pagan. So it would seem that what is Christian in it has been added long after the poem was first made, yet added before the people had forgotten their pagan ways.

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Their belief in the Unseen, so far as it manifests itself at all, seems to be rather a pagan kind; their moral notions, though held with strong tenacity, seem to have no standard beyond hereditary custom.

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THE EARLY PAGAN POETRY AND 'BEOWULF.' The Anglo-Saxons doubtless brought with them from the Continent the rude beginnings of poetry, such as come first in the literature of every people and consist largely of brief magical charms and of rough 'popular ballads' (ballads of the people).

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All the country between the river Oby and the river Janezay is as entirely pagan, and the people as barbarous, as the remotest of the Tartars.

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Or is it, after all, to quote him once more, that beyond those ever- recurring pagan misgivings, those pale pagan consolations, our generation feels yet cannot adequately express--

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Small sticks burned by the Chinese in their pagan tomfoolery, in imitation of certain sacred rites of our holy religion.

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He left the basin on the ground, with which Don Quixote contented himself, saying that the pagan had shown his discretion and imitated the beaver, which finding itself pressed by the hunters bites and cuts off with its teeth that for which, by its natural instinct, it knows it is pursued.

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She is all energy, and spirit, and sunshine, and interest in everybody and everything, and pours out her prodigal love upon every creature that will take it, high or low, Christian or pagan, feathered or furred; and none has declined it to date, and none ever will, I think.

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Our loves had been discovered, and my mother had shuddered to think that so pagan a thing had lived so long in a Christian house.

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"These pagan stoics," said Brown reflectively, "always fail by their strength.

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And let no man doubt this Arkite story; for in the ancient Joppa, now Jaffa, on the Syrian coast, in one of the Pagan temples, there stood for many ages the vast skeleton of a whale, which the city's legends and all the inhabitants asserted to be the identical bones of the monster that Perseus slew.

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