anathema

An anathema is a person or thing who is detested or hated. (noun)

Adolf Hitler is an example of an anathema.

See anathema in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun pl. anathemas

a thing or person accursed or damned
a thing or person greatly detested
1. a solemn ecclesiastical condemnation of a teaching judged to be gravely opposed to accepted church doctrine, or of the originators or supporters of such a teaching
2. the excommunication often accompanying or following this condemnation

adjective

See anathema in American Heritage Dictionary 4

(ə-năthˈə-mə)

noun pl. a·nath·e·mas

A formal ecclesiastical ban, curse, or excommunication.
A vehement denunciation; a curse: “the sound of a witch's anathemas in some unknown tongue” (Nathaniel Hawthorne).
One that is cursed or damned.
One that is greatly reviled, loathed, or shunned: “Essentialism—a belief in natural, immutable sex differences—is anathema to postmodernists, for whom sexuality itself, along with gender, is a ‘social construct’” (Wendy Kaminer).

Learn more about anathema

» anathema synonyms

Related Articles

» What Does PHP Stand For?