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nihilism - 7 dictionary results
ni⋅hil⋅ism
[nahy-uh-liz-uh
m, nee-]
–noun
| 1. | total rejection of established laws and institutions. |
| 2. | anarchy, terrorism, or other revolutionary activity. |
| 3. | total and absolute destructiveness, esp. toward the world at large and including oneself: the power-mad nihilism that marked Hitler's last years. |
| 4. | Philosophy.
|
| 5. | (sometimes initial capital letter ) the principles of a Russian revolutionary group, active in the latter half of the 19th century, holding that existing social and political institutions must be destroyed in order to clear the way for a new state of society and employing extreme measures, including terrorism and assassination. |
| 6. | annihilation of the self, or the individual consciousness, esp. as an aspect of mystical experience. |
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To nihilism
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Nihilism
Ni"hil*ism\, n. [L. nihil nothing: cf. F. nihilisme. See Annihilate.]1. Nothingness; nihility. 2. The doctrine that nothing can be known; scepticism as to all knowledge and all reality. 3. (Politics) The theories and practices of the Nihilists.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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nihilism [(neye-uh-liz-uhm, nee-uh-liz-uhm)]
An approach to philosophy that holds that human life is meaningless and that all religions, laws, moral codes, and political systems are thoroughly empty and false. The term is from the Latin nihil, meaning “nothing.”
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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nihilism
1817, "the doctrine of negation" (in ref. to religion or morals), from Ger. Nihilismus, from L. nihil "nothing at all" (see nil), coined by Ger. philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743-1819). In philosophy, an extreme form of skepticism (1836). The political sense was first used by Ger. journalist Joseph von Görres (1776-1848). Turgenev used the Rus. form of the word (nigilizm) in "Fathers and Children" (1862) and claimed to have invented it. With a capital N-, it refers to the Rus. revolutionary anarchism of the period 1860-1917, supposedly so called because "nothing" that then existed found favor in their eyes. Nihilist first attested 1836, in the religious or philosophical sense; in the Rus. political sense, it is recorded from 1871.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: ni·hi·lism
Pronunciation: 'nI-(h)&-"liz-&m, 'nE-
Function: noun
1 :
2 : skepticism as to the value of a drug or method of treatment
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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nihilism ni·hil·ism (nī'ə-lĭz'əm, nē'-)
n.
- The belief that destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement.
- A delusion, experienced in some mental disorders, that the world or one's mind, body, or self does not exist.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Copyright © 2009, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.

