gentile Add to list Share. ... More generally, gentile refers to a person who doesn't acknowledge a particular god or belief. The root is the Latin gentilis, whose meaning of "fellow countryman or family member" changed over time to mean "foreign, heathen, pagan."

Are Gentiles and pagans the same?

As nouns the difference between pagan and gentile

is that pagan is a person not adhering to any major or recognized religion, especially a heathen or non-abrahamist, follower of a pantheistic or nature-worshipping religion, neopagan while gentile is a non-jewish person.

What does gentile literally mean?

Gentile, person who is not Jewish. The word stems from the Hebrew term goy, which means a “nation,” and was applied both to the Hebrews and to any other nation. The plural, goyim, especially with the definite article, ha-goyim, “the nations,” meant nations of the world that were not Hebrew.