syn|cre|tism

syn|cre|tism «SIHNG kruh tihz uhm», noun.

1. attempted union or reconciliation of diverse or opposite tenets or practices, especially in philosophy or religion.

2. Grammar. the merging or union of originally different inflectional categories, usually the result of phonetic change.

3. a process in the growth of religions in which the religious doctrines, rituals, deities, and the like, of one creed or belief are adopted, adapted, or identified with its own by another, which thus gains adherents from the first.

4. the doctrines of the Lutheran, George Calixtus (1586-1656), and his followers, who aimed at harmonizing the Protestant sects and ultimately effecting the union of all Christian denominations.

╂[< New Latin syncretismus < Greek synkrētismós (< synkrētízein to combine, ally, apparently originally a union or federation of Cretan communities < Kr, Krēt Crete) + -ismos -ism]