Sectarian

//sɛkˈtɛəɹi.ən// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A member of a sect.

    "An American sectarian, who has always lived within the high walls and in the close atmosphere of our intense sect-life here, and has always been accustomed to the dragonism of sect-authority and sect-jealousy, —is utterly amazed when for the first time he looks over his native sect-walls and comes to see the freedom of thought and utterance within the old churches of Europe."

  2. 2
    a member of a sect wordnet
  3. 3
    A bigot.
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of, relating to, or partial to a sect.

    "We were discussing solutions to the sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shias."

  2. 2
    Dogmatic or partisan.
  3. 3
    Parochial or narrow-minded.
  4. 4
    Bigoted.
Adjective
  1. 1
    of or relating to or characteristic of a sect or sects wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
denominationaladherentalienatedantiestablishmentapostateat odds

Example

More examples

"The now ubiquitous occurrence of sectarian violence is the product of growing tensions between the country's different ethnic groups."

Etymology

From Medieval Latin sectarius + -an. Its corresponding etymology per the first sense is sect + -arian.

Related phrases

anti-sectariancounter-sectariannarrow minded

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