It's the Word of the Day podcast for October 30th.
Today's word is Syncritism, spelled S-Y-N-C-R-E-T-I-S-M.
Syncritism is a noun.
It refers to the combining of different forms of belief or practice.
Here's the word used in a sentence from Forbes by Laura Begley-Bloom.
Explore the archaeological wonders of Chavin de Juantar, where history comes alive.
This village, steeped in cultural richness, provides a journey into Peru's ancient past.
The village of Chavin de Juanter is an example of how tourism can foster syncretism between religious traditions and ancestral cultural elements,
generating experiences with a positive impact for the population,
and improving the quality of life of its residents," said the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
The ancient Greeks used the term syncretismos to refer to Cretan cities allied in opposition to a common enemy.
In the early 17th century,
English speakers adopted the term in the Anglicized form syncretism to refer to the union of different religious beliefs.
Three centuries later,
lexicographers of the 1909 edition of Webster's New International Dictionary added a new definition of syncretism,
the union or fusion into one or two or more originally different inflectional forms as of two cases.
But this specialized sense is rarely encountered outside the field of linguistics.
Some related terms that you're more likely to encounter are syncretize,
meaning to attempt to unite and harmonize,
syncretist, meaning one who advocates syncretism,