infidel

as in dissenter
disapproving a person who does not believe in a religion that someone regards as the true religion The theocracy regarded as infidels anyone that did not practice their religion.

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of infidel In 1935, Pope Pius XI openly supported the invasion of Ethiopia as a crusade against a country of heretics, schismatics, pagans, and infidels. Ian Campbell, Foreign Affairs, 22 Feb. 2022 View Photos The 940 series, sedan and wagons, will give Volvo a fresh set of foils with which to fend off the growing number of infidels storming the barricades of the $30,000-sedan empire. William Jeanes, Car and Driver, 27 June 2023 What’s surprising about The Covenant is that the usual gung-ho American military bravery is mostly downplayed to focus on the strategic backup provided by on-the-ground interpreters, who risked being branded as infidels, ostracized by their compatriots and tagged for Taliban reprisals. David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 Apr. 2023 When one follower demonstrated logically the existence of irrational numbers—numbers that cannot be expressed as a fraction, and that continue on indefinitely when expressed in decimals—the Pythagoreans are said to have taken the infidel out on a boat and tossed him overboard. Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 9 May 2022 See All Example Sentences for infidel
Recent Examples of Synonyms for infidel
Noun
  • Series creator Dan Erickson and his team studied the ways corporate and government whistleblowers have been treated by these entities in real life — dissenters are first fought, and then made to assimilate, Erickson noted.
    Leah Asmelash, CNN, 21 Mar. 2025
  • Associate Court of Appeals Judge Jenny Rivera, the lone dissenter to Thursday’s ruling, wrote in her own opinion that the city’s home rule ability to have decision-making power over local matters should’ve trumped the state constitutional restriction.
    Chris Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News, 20 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • Sports Illustrated even called for UM to disband what was seen then as a renegade football program led by a coach playing by his own rules.
    Greg Cote, Miami Herald, 5 Mar. 2025
  • Some have held him up as a renegade, choosing freedom over the comforts of domestic life.
    Rick Rojas, New York Times, 17 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • An app called Krishna, for example, has already advised killing unbelievers and supporting India's ruling party.
    Scott Shapiro, WIRED, 8 Jan. 2024
  • To have reservations about something that is treated as sacrosanct is to be an unbeliever, or worse, a heretic, and thus someone to be cast out.
    Ian Buruma, Harper's Magazine, 2 June 2023

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Cite this Entry

“Infidel.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/infidel. Accessed 3 Apr. 2025.

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