n. pl. dog·mas or dog·ma·ta (-mə-tə) 1. A doctrine or a corpus of doctrines relating to matters such as morality and faith, set forth in an authoritative manner by a religion. 2. A principle or statement of ideas, or a group of such principles or statements, especially when considered to be authoritative or accepted uncritically: "Much education consists in the instilling of unfounded dogmas in place of a spirit of inquiry" (Bertrand Russell). [Latin, from Greek, opinion, belief, from dokein, to seem, think; see dek- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] |
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