Definition of "religion" []

• Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe. (noun)
• A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship. (noun)
• The life or condition of a person in a religious order. (noun)
• A set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader. (noun)
• A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion. (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.

• "Grigor Lusavorich had returned from Israel to his native Armenia in the third century to proselytize the new religion of Christianity."
• "Cuche remarks quite correctly that "for adults as for children, experience proves that religion is the best method of inculcating morality"."
• "Krohne declares that it is only by means of religion that we can hope through punishment to reform the criminal, which is the principal object of imprisonment."