ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Apostate

Definition, Meaning & Examples

Pronunciation /əˈpɒs.teɪt/ · Part of speech adjective

Quick meaning: Apostate is an adjective meaning Guilty of apostasy.

Meaning

Guilty of apostasy.

More Meanings

  1. (countable, religion) A person who has renounced a religion or faith.
  2. (Roman Catholicism) One who, after having received sacred orders, renounces his clerical profession.
  3. (by extension) One who has renounced a political party, a cause, etc.

Example Sentences

a wretched and apostate state
We must punish this apostate priest.
An enormous number of monks and priests gave themselves up to sorcery, and there was no lack of apostate priests to perform the ceremonies of the Black Mass.
But the most politically damaging blow came from a late-breaking apostate: Mr. Clooney, who just weeks earlier had spent time with Mr. Biden and helped deliver $28 million to his campaign at a Los Angeles fund-raiser.

Word Forms

Synonyms for apostate

Depending on context, synonyms include withersake, recreant, turncoat, balimbing, butterfly, changeling.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include renegade, recreant, deserter, unfaithful, convert, unapostatized.

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Sources & Attribution

FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.