pseudomessiah

English

Alternative forms

• pseudo-Messiah

Etymology

From pseudo- +‎ messiah.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsuːdəʊmɪˌsaɪə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsudoʊmɪˌsaɪə/
• Hyphenation: pseu‧do‧mes‧si‧ah

Noun

pseudomessiah (plural pseudomessiahs)

1. A false Messiah; someone putatively claiming to be the Messiah.
   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 129:

     The reign of Elizabeth produced a small army of pseudo-Messiahs.

   • 1990, Bryon L Sherwin, In Partnership with God, page 240:

     There is evidence that he was a Sabbatean, a follower of the seventeenth-century Jewish pseudomessiah, Shabbatai Zevi.

   • 2013, Frank N. Magill, editor, The 17th and 18th Centuries: Dictionary of World Biography, page 463:

     Ferrar did not rule as a tyrant, nor was he the pseudomessiah of a cult.