religion

• Religion

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman religiun, from Old French religion, from Latin religiō (“scrupulousness, pious misgivings, superstition, conscientiousness, sanctity, an object of veneration, cult-observance, reverence”). Most likely from the Indo-European root *h₂leg with the meanings preserved in Latin dīligere and legere (“to read repeatedly”, “to have something solely in mind”).

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈlɪdʒən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪdʒən

religion (countable and uncountable, plural religions)

1. (uncountable) Belief in a spiritual reality (often including at least one deity), accompanied by practices or rituals pertaining to the belief.

   Synonym: faith

   My brother tends to value religion, but my sister not as much.

   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture 2:

     Most books on the philosophy of religion try to begin with a precise definition of what its essence consists of. ... I shall not be pedantic enough to enumerate any of them to you now. Meanwhile the very fact that they are so many and so different from one another is enough to prove that the word “religion” cannot stand for any single principle or essence, but is rather a collective name.

2. (countable) A particular system of such belief, and the rituals and practices proper to it.

   Synonym: faith

   Hypernym: belief system

   Islam is a major religion in parts of Asia and Africa.

   Eckankar is a new religion but Zoroastrianism is an old religion.

3. (uncountable) The way of life committed to by monks and nuns.

   The monk entered religion when he was 20 years of age.

4. (uncountable, informal) Rituals and actions associated with religious beliefs, but considered apart from them.

   Synonym: superstition (pejorative)

   I think some Christians would love Jesus more if they weren't so stuck in religion.

   Jack's spiritual, but he's not really into religion.

5. (countable) Any practice to which someone or some group is seriously devoted.

   At this point, Star Trek has really become a religion.

   • 1985, Joan Morrison, Share House Blues, Boolarong Publications, page 97:

     'Religion can't exist without mystery, especially science, the newest religion.'

6. (uncountable, obsolete) Faithfulness to a given principle; conscientiousness. [16th-17th c.]
   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 8, in The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     Oh with what religion doe I respect and observe the same!

• Some prefer a definition of religion that includes only theistic groups, viewing non-theistic religions as merely philosophical systems.

• See also Thesaurus:religion

religion (third-person singular simple present religions, present participle religioning, simple past and past participle religioned)

1. Engage in religious practice.
   • 1978, Military Chaplains' Review, page 70:

     On the scales below, circle the one ( + ) or (-) number which best represents your situation on both the belief and practice dimensions for each of the traditional and nontraditional forms of religioning.

   • 2013, Monica R. Miller, Religion and Hip Hop, →ISBN, page 74:

     A similar caution is made by Nye when he calls for a re-evaluation of the category of religion in relationship to theory and method, suggesting that this category: be reconstructed in terms of practice theory as religious practice or religioning.

   • 2015, Alexander Horstmann & ‎Jin-Heon Jung, Building Noah’s Ark for Migrants, Refugees, and Religious Communities, →ISBN, page 13:

     Religious practice and action (“religioning”) can be liberating, and can connect displaced people with the spirits of home.

2. Indoctrinate into a specific religion.
   • 1890, John R. Kelso, Deity analyzed: In six lectures - Page 37

     To men whose minds are thus religioned, tied back to gods that never advance, there can never be any such word as progress

   • 2007, Janette Oke, A Bride for Donnigan, →ISBN, page 225:

     “What do you do, Donnigan? Spend all yer time religioning yer young?”

3. To make sacred or symbolic; sanctify.
   • 1994, Timothy Morton, Shelley and the Revolution in Taste, →ISBN, page 238:

     The discussion of diet and health raises the question of the importance of discussing vegetarianism in relation to the contemporary religioning of health; as Ross remarks, 'health has replaced sexuality as the new privileged discourse of bodily truth and inner essence'.

   • 2011, Andrew O'Shea, Pedagogy, Oppression and Transformation in a 'Post-Critical' Climate, p 116

     The ideas expressed above challenge us to continuously rupture and interrupt racialized, classed, gendered, religioned and sexualized norms that inhere between and within institutions, understandings of bodies and our Selves.

   • 2013, Andrew Kam-Tuck Yip & Stephen Hunt, The Ashgate Research Companion to Contemporary Religion and Sexuality, →ISBN:

     If queer Jews, Muslims and Christians are engaged in queering their religions, they are also engaged in what might becalled 'religioning' the queer.

• religion in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• religion in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• ligroine, reoiling

religion

1. religion

religion

1. accusative singular of religio

From Middle French religion, from Old French religion, borrowed from Latin religio, religionem.

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.li.ʒjɔ̃/

• Audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: re‧li‧gion

religion f (plural religions)

1. religion

• foi
• culte
• dévotion

• religieux
• religieuse
• religiosité

• “religion” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

religion (plural religiones)

1. religion (system of belief, customs, etc.)

Borrowed from Latin religio, religionem.

religion m (plural [please provide])

1. religion

From Old French religion.

religion f (plural religions)

1. religion

• French: religion

religion m (definite singular religionen, indefinite plural religioner, definite plural religionene)

1. a religion

• tro

• religionsfrihet
• statsreligion

• religiøs

religion m (definite singular religionen, indefinite plural religionar, definite plural religionane)

1. a religion

• statsreligion

Borrowed from Latin religiō.

religion f (oblique plural religions, nominative singular religion, nominative plural religions)

1. religion

• religieus

• → English: religion
• French: religion
• Norman: r'ligion

religion

1. religion

• IPA^(key): /rɛlɪˈjuːn/

• Audio

  (file)

religion c

1. religion

• religionsfrihet
• religionskunskap
• religionslärare
• religionsvetare
• religiös

• ateism
• gud
• konventikel
• kyrklig
• monoteism
• relegera
• religare
• religio
• teologi
• tro