Definition of "heathen" []

• Offensive One who adheres to the religion of a people or nation that does not acknowledge the God of Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. (noun)
• Offensive Such persons considered as a group; the unconverted. (noun)
• An adherent of a Neopagan religion that seeks to revive the religious beliefs and practices of the ancient Germanic peoples. (noun)
• Informal One who is regarded as irreligious, uncivilized, or unenlightened. (noun)
• Informal Such persons considered as a group. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "It had made more than two millions of heathen in our country; and so long as the cries of these _heathen at home_ entered the ears of our young men and young women, they could not, dare not, go abroad."
• "Suggestions from what we call the heathen world seemed to accord with his Gospel of the Wild."
• "When Christian missionaries invade what they call a heathen country, they are followed in a little while by merchants and traders, and in a few days afterward by the army."