Orthodoxy

How to spell orthodoxy

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce orthodoxy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does orthodoxy mean?

1. nounConformity to traditional, established, or generally accepted beliefs, especially in religion, politics, or scholarship.

Orthodoxy in a sentence

• The young economist openly challenged the prevailing orthodoxy of the central bank.

• For decades the report on diet reflected the nutritional orthodoxy of its time.

Where does orthodoxy come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word descends from the Greek orthodoxia, a compound of orthos, meaning 'right' or 'straight', and doxa, meaning 'opinion' or 'belief'. So at its root the word literally describes holding the 'correct opinion', and the same orthos appears in many English words about straightness or correctness, such as orthography (correct writing) and orthopaedic (straightening of bones). Doxa, the belief element, is the same root that surfaces in 'paradox', an idea that runs alongside or against accepted opinion. The term passed from Greek into ecclesiastical Latin as orthodoxia and entered English in the early 1600s, first describing soundness in religious doctrine before broadening to mean conformity with any established and approved set of ideas. The spelling trap is the unexpected middle: the everyday word keeps that Greek 'dox' spelling for the 'belief' part, so the second half is spelled with a single x where a writer might guess differently.

How the word is built

• ortho- (right, straight, correct)
• dox (from doxa: opinion, belief)
• -y (noun-forming suffix)