Heresiarch
//hɛˈɹiːzɪɑːk// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The founder of a heresy, or a major ecclesiastical proponent of such a heresy.
"He died in 1223, and seems to have had no successor; not is it an ascertained point that more than one such hæresiarch was ever recognized."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"He died in 1223, and seems to have had no successor; not is it an ascertained point that more than one such hæresiarch was ever recognized."
Etymology
Borrowed from French hérésiarque, from Ecclesiastical Latin haeresiarcha (or directly from the Latin word), from ecclesiastical Byzantine Greek αἱρεσιάρχης (hairesiárkhēs, “leader of a sect”), from Ancient Greek αἵρεσῐς (haíresĭs, “heresy”) + -ᾰ́ρχης (-ắrkhēs, “leader, ruler”), corresponding to heresy + -arch.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.