n. One who holds and persistently maintains an opinion or a doctrine at variance with the accepted standards of any school or party, and rejected or condemned by it; one who rejects a generally accepted belief.n. Specifically, in theology, a professed believer who adopts and persistently maintains religious opinions contrary to the accepted standards of his church. See heresy, 2.n. Synonyms Heretic, Schismatic, Sectary, Dissenter, Nonconformist. Heretic is an opprobrious epithet for a professed believer who holds religious opinions contrary to the established or dominant beliefs. A schismatic is one who seeks to sunder or divide into different organizations or parties those who are of essentially the same religious faith. A sectary or sectarian is one who sets the welfare of his own sect or denomination above that of the church universal, often pushing its interests at the cost of the general Christian welfare. This word has been much used opprobriously of those who stand out against an original or more powerful organization. A dissenter or nonconformist is one who dissents from an established religion, or does not conform to it; specifically and in actual use these words apply almost exclusively to those Protestants in Great Britain who worship apart from the Established Church of England, as the Presbyterians, Baptists, and Independents.Pertaining to heresy; believing heresy.