Other forms: religions
A religion is a shared system of belief in God or gods. Organised religion, freedom of religion, a world religion.
The sharing is what makes it a religion rather than a private belief: practice, community and authority all come with it. Defining the word is genuinely hard — traditions without gods, such as some forms of Buddhism, break most simple definitions. Note that the Latin root is disputed, possibly meaning to bind fast.
1nounreligionA shared system of belief in God or gods.
“The school teaches children about every major religion, from Buddhism to Islam.”
religion is a system of belief.
Also accepted in games: faith
Latin religio meant scruple or reverence. Cicero linked it to relegere, to read again, and Augustine to religare, to bind fast.
Middle English
religioun
English, today
religion
From Middle English religioun. From Middle English religioun, from Old French religion, from Latin religiō (“scrupulousness, pious misgivings, superstition, conscientiousness, sanctity, an object of veneration, cult-observance, reverence”). Most likely from the Proto-Indo-European h₂leg- with the meanings preserved in Latin dīligere and legere (“to read repeatedly”, “to have something solely in mind”). ǣfæstnes.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA