unorthodoxy
Breaking from tradition
Unorthodoxy is departure from accepted beliefs, practices, or conventions.
The word implies deviation from established norms—religious, scientific, or social: Her unorthodoxy made her unpopular with the department elders.
Unlike heresy, unorthodoxy doesn't necessarily suggest wrongness, just difference from the mainstream.
Renunciation of former beliefs
- blasphemyIrreverence toward the sacred
- dissentDisagreement with authority
- schismFormal organizational fracture
- iconoclasmAttacking revered traditions
excommunication · doctrine · dogma · infidelity · sacrilege · freethinking · heretics · sectarianism
Departure from accepted standards
- quirkinessUnusual or unexpected trait
- idiosyncrasyDistinctive personal peculiarity
- peculiarityUnusual distinguishing characteristic
- odditySomething unusual or unexpected
strangeness · weirdness · nonconformism · singularity · outlandishness · bizarreness · aberration · anomaly
Capacity for original thought
- originalityNovel creative quality
- noveltyQuality of being original
- inventivenessCapacity for original creation
- ingenuityClever, original thinking
experimentation · pioneering · breakthrough · disruption · avant-garde · trailblazing · progressivism · fresh perspective
Rejection of prevailing norms
- rebellionDefiance of established power
- defianceOpen resistance to authority
- resistanceCapacity to withstand force
- subversionUndermining established authority
radicalism · protest · counterculture · opposition · dissidence · contrarianism · insurgency · activism
apostasy
Renunciation of former beliefs
- blasphemyIrreverence toward the sacred
- dissentDisagreement with authority
- schismFormal organizational fracture
iconoclasm · excommunication · doctrine · dogma · infidelity · sacrilege · freethinking · heretics · sectarianism · Inquisition
unconventionality
Departure from accepted standards
- quirkinessUnusual or unexpected trait
- idiosyncrasyDistinctive personal peculiarity
- peculiarityUnusual distinguishing characteristic
oddity · strangeness · weirdness · nonconformism · singularity · outlandishness · bizarreness · aberration · anomaly · kookiness
creativity
Capacity for original thought
- originalityNovel creative quality
- noveltyQuality of being original
- inventivenessCapacity for original creation
ingenuity · experimentation · pioneering · breakthrough · disruption · avant-garde · trailblazing · progressivism · fresh perspective · lateral thinking
nonconformity
Rejection of prevailing norms
- rebellionDefiance of established power
- defianceOpen resistance to authority
- resistanceCapacity to withstand force
subversion · radicalism · protest · counterculture · opposition · dissidence · contrarianism · insurgency · activism · civil disobedience
- heresyheretic, heretical, heretics, apostasy, apostate
- heresiesGnosticism, heresy, Monophysitism, Bogomilism, misbelief
- Anomaliesanomaly, deviation, aberration, irregularity, oddity
- originalityoriginality, uniqueness, novelty, creativity, inventiveness
- objectionsobjection, complaint, protest, refutation, demur
- Inquisitioninquisition, heretic, inquisitors, heretics, heresy trial
unorthodoxyorthodoxy
Adherence to accepted beliefs
conformity · conventionality · conventionalism · traditionalism · conformism
- unorthodox beliefsOpinions diverging from convention