Nicene Creed

[ nahy-seen kreed, nahy-seen ]

noun

1. a formal statement of the chief tenets of Christian belief, adopted by the first Nicene Council.
2. a later creed of closely similar form Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, or Constantinopolitan Creed referred, perhaps erroneously, to the Council of Constantinople (a.d. 381), received universally in the Eastern Church and, with an addition introduced in the 6th century a.d., accepted generally throughout western Christendom.

Nicene Creed

noun

1. the formal summary of Christian beliefs promulgated at the first council of Nicaea in 325 ad
2. a longer formulation of Christian beliefs authorized at the council of Constantinople in 381, and now used in most Christian liturgies

Word History and Origins

Origin of Nicene Creed¹

First recorded in 1550–60

Example Sentences

Faculty members hired by Calvin University must sign a document saying their beliefs align with a set of historical Christian creeds and confessions, such as the Nicene Creed and the Heidelberg Catechism.

From Washington Post

Group members affirm the Nicene Creed, a Christian statement of belief recited weekly in Catholic and many Protestant churches.

From New York Times

The title is a phrase from the Nicene Creed, a declaration of Christian belief that has been a staple of orthodox liturgy since the fourth century.

From Los Angeles Times

They have an intimation that the world is made up, in the words of the Nicene Creed, of both the “seen and unseen.”

From Washington Post

By Gray’s account, they ignore polytheism and animism almost entirely, while insisting on reading verses of Genesis or lines of the Nicene Creed as if they were primitive scientific theories.

From The New Yorker