atheist
noun
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How Agnostic Differs From Atheist
Atheist and agnostic appear in the same contexts but are distinct in meaning. Atheist refers to someone who does not believe in the existence of a god or any gods. Agnostic has two relevant meanings: it can refer to someone who holds the view that any ultimate reality, such as God, is unknown and probably unknowable, or it can refer to someone who is not committed to believing in either the existence or nonexistence of God or a god.
Agnostic first appeared in print in 1869 (it was possibly coined by the English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley), and was formed from the Greek agnōstos, meaning "unknown, unknowable." Atheist came to English from the French athéisme. Although both words share the prefix a-, meaning "without," the main body of each word is quite different. Agnostic ultimately comes from the Greek root gignōskein, meaning "know" (also the source of such words as know and prognosis). Atheist shares the root theo, meaning "god," with such words as theology and theism.
Examples of atheist in a Sentence
Oshan Jarow, Vox, 4 Nov. 2024
Even atheists would have no trouble identifying Maarten de Vos’s bearded old man as Yahweh.
—Jonathon Keats, Forbes, 29 Oct. 2024
Khazen, an atheist from an aristocratic Christian family, is funding the effort with help from friends.
—Rania Abouzeid, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2024
Mainstream Jewish institutions, in the staff’s view, have supplanted an expansive tradition with a narrow ethnic tribalism: Jews can be atheists or Buddhists or connoisseurs of pepperoni pizza, but Israel’s status as a Jewish democracy remains sacred.
—Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Atheist.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atheist. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
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