CHRISTIANITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Christianity mean? 

• CHRISTIANITY (noun)
  The noun CHRISTIANITY has 2 senses:

1. a monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior

2. the collective body of Christians throughout the world and history (found predominantly in Europe and the Americas and Australia)

  Familiarity information: CHRISTIANITY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHRISTIANITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

Christian religion; Christianity

Hypernyms ("Christianity" is a kind of...):

faith; religion; religious belief (a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny)

Domain member category:

communion ((Christianity) a group of Christians with a common religious faith who practice the same rites)

inerrancy ((Christianity) exemption from error)

council ((Christianity) an assembly of theologians and bishops and other representatives of different churches or dioceses that is convened to regulate matters of discipline or doctrine)

Church Father; Father; Father of the Church ((Christianity) any of about 70 theologians in the period from the 2nd to the 7th century whose writing established and confirmed official church doctrine; in the Roman Catholic Church some were later declared saints and became Doctor of the Church; the best known Latin Church Fathers are Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Jerome; those who wrote in Greek include Athanasius, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and John Chrysostom)

Antichrist ((Christianity) the adversary of Christ (or Christianity) mentioned in the New Testament; the Antichrist will rule the world until overthrown by the Second Coming of Christ)

Laurentius; Lawrence; Saint Lawrence; St. Lawrence (Roman martyr; supposedly Lawrence was ordered by the police to give up the church's treasure and when he responded by presenting the poor people of Rome he was roasted to death on a gridiron (died in 258))

Ascension; Ascension Day; Ascension of the Lord ((Christianity) celebration of the Ascension of Christ into heaven; observed on the 40th day after Easter)

August 6; Transfiguration; Transfiguration Day ((Christianity) a church festival held in commemoration of the Transfiguration of Jesus)

transubstantiate (change (the Eucharist bread and wine) into the body and blood of Christ)

receive (partake of the Holy Eucharist sacrament)

assume (take up someone's soul into heaven)

cursed; damned; doomed; unredeemed; unsaved (in danger of the eternal punishment of Hell)

ransomed; redeemed (saved from the bondage of sin)

Assumption ((Christianity) the taking up of the body and soul of the Virgin Mary when her earthly life had ended)

real presence ((Christianity) the Christian doctrine that the body of Christ is actually present in the Eucharist)

Nicene Creed ((Christianity) a formal creed summarizing Christian beliefs; first adopted in 325 and later expanded)

Incarnation ((Christianity) the Christian doctrine of the union of God and man in the person of Jesus Christ)

Immaculate Conception; Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary ((Christianity) the Roman Catholic dogma that God preserved the Virgin Mary from any stain of original sin from the moment she was conceived)

ecumenicalism; ecumenicism; ecumenism ((Christianity) the doctrine of the ecumenical movement that promotes cooperation and better understanding among different religious denominations: aimed at universal Christian unity)

Annunciation ((Christianity) the announcement to the Virgin Mary by the angel Gabriel of the incarnation of Christ)

article of faith; credendum ((Christianity) any of the sections into which a creed or other statement of doctrine is divided)

tritheism ((Christianity) the heretical belief that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are three separate gods)

Hell; infernal region; Inferno; nether region; perdition; pit ((Christianity) the abode of Satan and the forces of evil; where sinners suffer eternal punishment)

Paradise ((Christianity) the abode of righteous souls after death)

errancy ((Christianity) holding views that disagree with accepted doctrine; especially disagreement with papal infallibility)

mortification ((Christianity) the act of mortifying the lusts of the flesh by self-denial and privation (especially by bodily pain or discomfort inflicted on yourself))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "Christianity"):

Adventism; Second Adventism (any Christian religion that believes the second coming of Christ is imminent)

Catholicism; Catholicity (the beliefs and practices of a Catholic Church)

Albigensianism; Catharism (a Christian movement considered to be a medieval descendant of Manichaeism in southern France in the 12th and 13th centuries; characterized by dualism (asserted the coexistence of two mutually opposed principles, one good and one evil); was exterminated for heresy during the Inquisition)

Donatism (a schismatic Christian religion in northern Africa from the 4th to the 7th century; held that only those who led a blameless life belonged in the church or could administer the sacraments)

Protestantism (the theological system of any of the churches of western Christendom that separated from the Roman Catholic Church during the Reformation)

Puseyism; Tractarianism (principles of the founders of the Oxford movement as expounded in pamphlets called 'Tracts for the Times')

Derivation:

christian (following the teachings or manifesting the qualities or spirit of Jesus Christ)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The collective body of Christians throughout the world and history (found predominantly in Europe and the Americas and Australia)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

Christendom; Christianity

Context example:

for a thousand years the Roman Catholic Church was the principal church of Christendom

Hypernyms ("Christianity" is a kind of...):

body (a group of persons associated by some common tie or occupation and regarded as an entity)

Meronyms (parts of "Christianity"):

Christian church; church (one of the groups of Christians who have their own beliefs and forms of worship)

church (the body of people who attend or belong to a particular local church)

Derivation:

Christian (relating to or characteristic of Christianity)

 Context examples 

I am simply, in my original state—stripped of that blood-bleached robe with which Christianity covers human deformity—a cold, hard, ambitious man.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The poem, which can be dated as far back as 961, foretells the end of Iceland’s pagan gods and the coming of a new, singular god: in other words, the conversion of Iceland to Christianity, which was formalised around the turn of the eleventh century.

(Volcanic eruption influenced Iceland’s conversion to Christianity, University of Cambridge)

But this description, I confess, does by no means affect the British nation, who may be an example to the whole world for their wisdom, care, and justice in planting colonies; their liberal endowments for the advancement of religion and learning; their choice of devout and able pastors to propagate Christianity; their caution in stocking their provinces with people of sober lives and conversations from this the mother kingdom; their strict regard to the distribution of justice, in supplying the civil administration through all their colonies with officers of the greatest abilities, utter strangers to corruption; and, to crown all, by sending the most vigilant and virtuous governors, who have no other views than the happiness of the people over whom they preside, and the honour of the king their master.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I heard of the slothful Asiatics, of the stupendous genius and mental activity of the Grecians, of the wars and wonderful virtue of the early Romans—of their subsequent degenerating—of the decline of that mighty empire, of chivalry, Christianity, and kings.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)