Meanings
- derogatoryuncountableThe tenets of the Church of Rome; the Roman Catholic religion.First known use 17th c.
Romanism once extinguished, all other Sects will follow, and that the Catholic Religion—falsely so called—for Catholick means universal—is going, none now will venture to deny.
1790 August 1, Hester Thrale Piozzi, Thraliana2 more examples
Then I saw how a spot no larger than this could be crowded with millions of souls, and yet be apparently uninhabited. Romanism increases the degradation of tenantism, and rum completes it.
1866, Gilbert Haven, The Pilgrim's Wallet, page 8It appears then that Warfield himself really suggests a better way of expressing such differences as obtain between Romanism and Protestantism, or between universalistic and particularistic Protestantism than he has himself employed.
1967 December 1, Cornelius Van Til, The Defense of the Faith, 3rd edition, Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co., page 71Synonyms: Roman Catholicism, see there for others that are pejorative
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe tenets of the Church of Rome; the Roman Catholic religion.
More synonyms by meaning
nounthe beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church based in Rome
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From Roman + -ism, after Romanist. Compare Romish.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Romanism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Romanism
“Romanism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Romanism. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Romanism,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Romanism.
Source: Romanism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.