pagan
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A person not adhering to a main world religion.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
payguhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpeɪɡən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A person not adhering to a main world religion; a follower of a pantheistic or nature-worshipping religion.
An outlaw biker who is a member of the Pagans MC.
adjective
Relating to, characteristic of religions that differ from main world religions.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A person not adhering to a main world religion; a follower of a pantheistic or nature-worshipping religion.
Used this way, pagan is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use pagan
- “Some ancient cultures practiced pagan rituals during solstices.”
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.