apostasy
/əˈpɒstəsi
/noun [mass noun]
The abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief or principle: the execution of their leader for apostasy brought widespread criticism...
- Any verbal denial of any principle of Muslim belief is considered apostasy.
- This refrain must be one of the most lyrical expressions of political apostasy ever written.
- However, the reintroduction of true gospel doctrine into those periods of apostasy required a belief in continued divine revelation.
Synonyms
renunciation of belief, abandonment of belief, recantation;
treachery, perfidy, faithlessness, disloyalty, betrayal, defection, desertion;
heresy
rare tergiversation, recreancy
Origin
Middle English: from ecclesiastical Latin apostasia, from a late Greek alteration of Greek apostasis 'defection'.