religionism

American  

[ri-lij-uh-niz-uhm] / rɪˈlɪdʒ əˌnɪz əm /

noun

1. excessive or exaggerated religious zeal.

2. affected or pretended religious zeal.

---

religionism British  

/ rɪˈlɪdʒəˌnɪzəm /

noun

1. extreme religious fervour

---

Other Word Forms

• antireligionist noun
• religionist noun
• religionistic adjective

Etymology

Origin of religionism

First recorded in 1785–95; religion + -ism

Example Sentences

But it is useful for us to know it, notwithstanding its background of gloomy religionism and its air of unreality; for it helps us to understand the character of Puritan women and of Philip Stubbes.

From Two Centuries of Costume in America, Volume 1 (1620-1820) by Earle, Alice Morse

The austerity of his manners frightens his old father, who can little comprehend the religionism of the new school.

From The Newcomes Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family by Thackeray, William Makepeace

On the other hand, exclusive religionism has too much consciousness of secret sympathy with its avowed antipodes, to enjoy itself much better.

From Brook Farm Historic and Personal Memoirs by Codman, John Thomas

His was an eclectic philosophy and religionism, of which all the elements were discoverable in old Hebrew books: scraps of Alexandrian philosophy inextricably blent with Aristotelian, Platonic, mystic.

From Children of the Ghetto A Study of a Peculiar People by Zangwill, Israel

It seeks not, therefore, the applause of men; and it shrinks from that spurious religionism whose prominent characters are talk, and pretension, and external observance, often accompanied by uncharitable censure.

From The Philosophy of the Moral Feelings by Abercrombie, John