Meanings
- uncountableEastern OrthodoxyThe doctrine and practice of organizing churches along exclusive and nationalist lines, condemned as heretical by the Council of Constantinople in 1872.
[Soloviev] lamented that phyletism, the division of the church along ethnic, national, or linguistic lines, had become Orthodoxy’s governing ecclesiology despite its official condemnation in 1872.
2017, A. Edward Siecienski, The Papacy and the Orthodox: Sources and History of a Debate, →ISBN, page 3751 more example
Its progress in the past years shows that the heresy of phyletism is bound to rescind and that all those who really desire Orthodox unity—without losing anything which is precious and positive in their ethnic traditions—will join us in our common Orthodox witness to the world of today.
1977 May, John Meyendorff, “Blind Phyletism”, in The Vision of Unity, published 1987, →ISBN, page 77Synonyms: ethnophyletism
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe doctrine and practice of organizing churches along exclusive and nationalist lines, condemned as heretical by the Council of Constantinople in 1872.
Origin
- Greekφυλετισμός
- Englishphyletism
Borrowed from Greek φυλετισμός (fyletismós), from φυλέτης (fylétis, “tribesman”) + -ισμός (-ismós, “-ism”).
More words from Greek
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
phyletism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phyletism
“phyletism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phyletism. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “phyletism,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phyletism.
Source: phyletism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.