• IPA: /ɹɪˈlɪdʒən/

religion

1. (uncountable) Belief in a spiritual reality (often including at least one deity), accompanied by practices or rituals pertaining to the belief.

   Synonyms: faith

   My brother tends to value religion, but my sister not as much.

   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture 2:

     Most books on the philosophy of religion try to begin with a precise definition of what its essence consists of. ... I shall not be pedantic enough to enumerate any of them to you now. Meanwhile the very fact that they are so many and so different from one another is enough to prove that the word “religion” cannot stand for any single principle or essence, but is rather a collective name.

2. (countable) A particular system of such belief, and the rituals and practices proper to it.

   Synonyms: faith

   Hypernyms: belief system

   Islam is a major religion in parts of Asia and Africa.

   Eckankar is a new religion but Zoroastrianism is an old religion.

3. (uncountable) The way of life committed to by monks and nuns.

   The monk entered religion when he was 20 years of age.

4. (uncountable, informal) Rituals and actions associated with religious beliefs, but considered apart from them.

   Synonyms: superstition

   I think some Christians would love Jesus more if they weren't so stuck in religion.

   Jack's spiritual, but he's not really into religion.

5. (countable) Any practice to which someone or some group is seriously devoted.

   At this point, Star Trek has really become a religion.

6. (uncountable, obsolete) Faithfulness to a given principle; conscientiousness. [16th-17th c.]
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 8, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821 ↗:

     Oh with what religion doe I respect and observe the same!

• French: religion
• German: Religion
• Italian: religione
• Portuguese: religião
• Russian: рели́гия
• Spanish: religión

religion (religions, present participle religioning; past and past participle religioned)

1. Engage in religious practice.
2. Indoctrinate into a specific religion.
   • 1890, John R. Kelso, Deity analyzed: In six lectures - Page 37

     To men whose minds are thus religioned, tied back to gods that never advance, there can never be any such word as progress

3. To make sacred or symbolic; sanctify.
   • 2011, Andrew O'Shea, Pedagogy, Oppression and Transformation in a 'Post-Critical' Climate, p 116

     The ideas expressed above challenge us to continuously rupture and interrupt racialized, classed, gendered, religioned and sexualized norms that inhere between and within institutions, understandings of bodies and our Selves.

religion (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of religion, especially when defined as a school subject.