What does "rastafarianism" mean?

a religious cult based on a belief that Ras Tafari (Haile Selassie) is the Messiah and that Africa (especially Ethiopia) is the Promised Land

What is a synonym for "rastafarianism"?

Common synonyms include: rasta, rasta, rastafari, rastafari.

name

name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
a religious cult based on a belief that Ras Tafari (Haile Selassie) is the Messiah and that Africa (especially Ethiopia) is the Promised Land wordnet

Proper Noun

1
A religion that emerged in Jamaica in the 1930s out of biblical prophecy and rising black aspirations.

From Rastafarian + -ism, from Amharic ራስ ተፈሪ (ras täfäri, from ራስ (ras, “chief, head”) + ተፈሪ (täfäri, “revered”)), a title of Haile Selassie.

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