Idolatry

//aɪˈdɑ.lə.tɹi// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The worship of idols. countable, uncountable

    "The parish stank of idolatry, abominable rites were practiced in secret, and in all the bounds there was no one had a more evil name for the black traffic than one Alison Sempill, who bode at the Skerburnfoot."

  2. 2
    the worship of idols; the worship of physical objects or images as gods wordnet
  3. 3
    The excessive admiration of somebody or something. countable, figuratively, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
adorationreverenceworshipcultismaccoladeadmiration

Example

More examples

"Let not my love be called idolatry, nor my beloved as an idol show, since all alike my songs and praises be to one, of one, still such, and ever so."

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English ydolatrie, from Old French idolatrie, from Ecclesiastical Latin īdōlatrīa, from Late Latin īdōlolatrīa, from Ancient Greek εἰδωλολατρίᾱ (eidōlolatríā, “worship of idols”), back-formation from εἰδωλολάτρης (eidōlolátrēs), from εἴδωλον (eídōlon, “idol”) & λάτρις (látris, “worshipper”) or λατρεύω (latreúō, “I worship”), from λάτρον (látron, “payment”). Equivalent to idol + -latry. Cognate with Modern French idolâtrie, Italian idolatria, Occitan ydolatria, Portuguese idolatria, and Spanish idolatría. Displaced native Old English dēofolġield (literally “devil worship”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.