How to Use heretic in a Sentence

heretic

noun
  • The church regards them as heretics.
  • Galileo was condemned as a heretic for supporting Copernicus's thesis that the earth revolves around the sun and not vice versa.
  • In 1431, Joan of Arc, condemned as a heretic, was burned at the stake in Rouen, France.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 30 May 2021
  • In 1431, Joan of Arc, condemned as a heretic, was burned at the stake in Rouen, France.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 30 May 2020
  • In 1431, Joan of Arc, condemned as a heretic, was burned at the stake in Rouen, France.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 30 May 2021
  • In 1431, Joan of Arc, condemned as a heretic, was burned at the stake in Rouen, France.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 30 May 2021
  • Guston, too, was a heretic in flight from the high priests of culture.
    — Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 4 Sep. 2020
  • By 1120, the church council in Jerusalem ordered that sodomites, like heretics, be burned at the stake.
    — S. C. Cornell, The New Yorker, 12 Mar. 2025
  • The bishop has to decide whether to have the minister tried as a heretic.
    — Celia Storey, Arkansas Online, 24 May 2021
  • But both creeds share the fate of being treated as heretics by the Sunnis.
    — Halil Karaveli, Foreign Affairs, 11 Sep. 2012
  • The heathen is the enemy, but the heretic is something worse, a traitor.
    — Andrew Stuttaford, National Review, 11 Feb. 2024
  • The stake, with the hooded heretic, the black man or the witch attached to it, is the burning tree and body of the infernal world.
    — John Ganz, Harper's Magazine, 22 May 2024
  • Keeping the state out of the church’s business meant clerics lost the power to suppress heretics by force.
    — The Economist, 4 Nov. 2017
  • Only a heretic could so do, and they can be burned for apostasy.
    — Evan Waite, The New Yorker, 19 May 2020
  • Each of our perspectives is gospel and those who disagree with us are heretics.
    — Cameron Smith, AL.com, 30 Dec. 2017
  • Bygone heretic hunters and their enablers have become the hunted.
    — Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic, 7 Sep. 2017
  • Pageantry was at a premium, even for the auto-da-fé, which involved a single heretic and no fire.
    — Matthew Gurewitsch, WSJ, 16 Oct. 2017
  • In the south of France there was a long crusade in the thirteenth century against heretics known as Cathars (the ‘Albigensian crusade’).
    — Dan Jones, Time, 10 Oct. 2019
  • For that and other writings, he was declared a heretic, which led him to further critiques of the papal system.
    — Mike Ellis, USA TODAY, 31 Oct. 2017
  • But if Bannon is angry, Breitbart will treat Trump like a heretic.
    — Paul Bond, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 Aug. 2017
  • This Irish native, accused by her stepchildren of performing witchcraft in 1324, was the first in the country to be tried for sorcery as a heretic.
    — Blair Donovan, Country Living, 18 July 2019
  • This Irish native, accused by her stepchildren of performing witchcraft in 1324, was the first in the country to be tried for sorcery as a heretic.
    — Blair Donovan, Country Living, 30 Sep. 2022
  • Like heretics before him, the quarterback faced an informal ban from the sport for his demonstration.
    — Vann R. Newkirk Ii, The Atlantic, 29 Sep. 2017
  • What better way to dismiss or delegitimize the heretics than to smear them as covert members of the opposition?
    — Pamela Paul, The Mercury News, 29 June 2024
  • According to one medieval legend, Nicholas punched a heretic in the nose at the Council of Nicea -- the meeting in 325 that formed the first consensus on Christian doctrine.
    — Daniel Burke, CNN, 6 Dec. 2019
  • Soon kingdoms plunged into chaos and war, burning heretics and hanging traitors under orders from popes and queens.
    — Kim Heacox, Alaska Dispatch News, 31 Oct. 2017
  • The Islamic State group has attacked Afghan Shiites in the past, and views the religious minority as heretics.
    — NBC News, 6 Mar. 2020
  • Although the Yazidis are a monotheistic faith, IS viewed them as heretics and sought to annihilate both the people and their religious sites.
    — Washington Post, 4 Aug. 2019
  • The liberal as heretic, pursued and denounced by the angry children of the liberal ideal.
    — John Kass, Twin Cities, 11 June 2017
  • The liberal as heretic, pursued and denounced by the angry children of the liberal ideal.
    — John Kass, chicagotribune.com, 6 June 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'heretic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: