Definition

Idolatry refers to the worship of idols or the excessive admiration or love for something or someone, usually to the point of obsession.

Pronunciation

US English

UK English


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Excerpts from News Articles

Many Muslims say they are prohibited from viewing images of Muhammad out of concerns of idolatry , but Muslims have varying views about such representations.

Logo 2023-04-03 The New York Times

But the gun rights movement is changing. In many quarters of America, respect for firearms has turned into a form of reverence. As I wrote in 2022, there is now widespread gun idolatry . “Guns” have joined “God” and “Trump” in the hierarchy of right-wing values. At the edges, gun owners have gone from defending the rights of people to own semiautomatic rifles like AR-15s to openly brandishing them in protests, even to the point of, for example, staging an armed occupation of parts of the Michigan Capitol during anti-lockdown protests.

Logo 2023-04-23 The New York Times

His diaries reflect his classical education and his aristocratic upbringing. His view of the world was refracted by the presumed superiorities of his faith, nationality and skin color: Muslims were infidels, Hindus idolaters , India ungovernable, and Indians, well, they were the fallen descendants of Shem or Ham. At the same time, he was astute in his observations of the Mughal court, assiduous in his duties, resourceful in the face of company’s penny-pinching and honest enough to record the iniquities of his countrymen, who had developed a reputation for depravity, drunkenness and violence.

Logo 2023-04-05 The Washington Post

Almost {$}10. This is not some tech stock beating faux estimates and being loved by idolatrous research analysts. This is JPMorgan, like the House of Morgan.

Logo 2023-04-16 CNBC

This notion was also used by Christian colonizers who were intent on destroying traditions that they saw as idolatrous . In their eyes, reverence toward a mountain or the earth itself was worshiping a mere “thing,” a false god. The church and the empire believed it was critical to desacralize these more-than-human beings and treat them as mere resources.

Logo 2023-04-21 The Conversation

It remains unclear whether—or, perhaps, how much—Samuel suspected the documents were fakes. His antiquarian acquisitiveness and idolatry of Shakespeare compelled him to believe. Many people around him authenticated the papers. But even after the Vortigern debacle and after William-Henry himself confessed, Samuel continued to insist that the documents were authentic, until his death in 1800. That was a galling outcome for William-Henry. He was Shakespeare for about a year, and he lived off the notoriety for three more decades. But he failed to convince his father of what was real.