irreligiosity

irreligiosity (countable and uncountable, plural irreligiosities)

1. (uncountable) Quality of being irreligious.
   • 1584, William Allen, A True, Sincere and Modest Defence of English Catholics, London: The Manresa Press, 1914, Volume 2, Chapter 8, p. 126,

     And it is a singular note of irreligiosity in our days, that these profane heretics and godless persons do prefer human things before divine; the regiment temporal before spiritual; the body before the soul; earth before heaven; regality before priesthood; and this life before the next and all eternity.

   • 1930, William Malisoff, A Calendar of Doubts and Faiths, New York: G. H. Watt, “The Significance of Science,” pp. 277-278,

     The irreligiosity of much that passes for religion is paralleled, of course, to quite an extent by the unscientific nature of a great deal that passes for science.

   • 1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, Vintage International, 2001, Part One, Chapter 4,

     The Tulsis celebrated Christmas in their store and, with equal irreligiosity, in their home.

2. (countable) An impious action or utterance.
   • 2010, Andrew Schenker, “Guilt and Morality in Philip Roth’s Nemesis,” Slant Magazine, 19 September, 2010,

     […] at first, the sudden insertion of scathing irreligiosities into the mouth of such a previously unflappable character seems a merely academic gesture.

   • 2011, Ali Rahnema, Superstition as Ideology in Iranian Politics: From Majlesi to Ahmadinejad, Cambridge University Press, Part I, Chapter 7, p. 234,

     Majlesi preached and popularized his discourse with the open support of the Shah. In exchange, he turned a blind eye to the personal and private impieties and irreligiosities of the Shah, as long as the Shah continued to officially pay lip service to Shi‘ism and publicly act as its protector and upholder.

• (quality of being irreligious): irreligiousness