anathema

Definition of ANATHEMA

a : one that is cursed by ecclesiastical authority : someone or something intensely disliked

or loathed usually used as a predicate nominative <this notion wasanathema to most of
his countrymen S. J. Gould>
a : a ban or curse solemnly pronounced by ecclesiastical authority and accompanied
by excommunication : the denunciation of something as accursed : a
vigorous denunciation : CURSE
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Examples of ANATHEMA

1.

a politician who is anathema to conservatives

2.

ideas that are an anathema to me

3.

Maugham was not only prolific but also a best-seller, though snobs dismissed his
work as middlebrow (a category that few people worry about in our day but that once
was anathema). Edmund White, New York Review of Books, 12 Feb. 2009

Origin of ANATHEMA

Late Latin anathemat-, anathema, from Greek, thing devoted to evil, curse,
from anatithenai to set up, dedicate, from ana- + tithenai to place, set more at DO
Related to ANATHEMA

Synonyms: curse, ban, execration, imprecation,malediction, malison, winze [Scottish]

Antonyms: benediction, benison, blessing
1

curse

Definition of CURSE

: a prayer or invocation for harm or injury to come upon one: IMPRECATION

: something that is cursed or accursed
: evil or misfortune that comes as if in response to imprecation or as retribution
: a cause of great harm or misfortune
Ex.I heard him utter a curse before the microphone was shut off.