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nihilist - 3 dictionary results

ni⋅hil⋅ism

  [nahy-uh-liz-uhm, nee-]
Use nihilist in a Sentence
–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.
a. an extreme form of skepticism: the denial of all real existence or the possibility of an objective basis for truth.
b. nothingness or nonexistence.
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.
Origin:
1810–20; < L nihil nothing (var. of nihilum; see nil ) + -ism

Related forms:
ni⋅hil⋅ist, noun, adjective
ni⋅hil⋅is⋅tic, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ni·hil·ism   (nī'ə-lĭz'əm, nē'-)   
n.  
  1. Philosophy
    1. An extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence.
    2. A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated.
  2. Rejection of all distinctions in moral or religious value and a willingness to repudiate all previous theories of morality or religious belief.
  3. The belief that destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement.
  4. also Nihilism A diffuse, revolutionary movement of mid 19th-century Russia that scorned authority and tradition and believed in reason, materialism, and radical change in society and government through terrorism and assassination.
  5. Psychiatry A delusion, experienced in some mental disorders, that the world or one's mind, body, or self does not exist.

[Latin nihil, nothing; see ne in Indo-European roots + -ism.]
ni'hil·ist n., ni'hil·is'tic adj., ni'hil·is'ti·cal·ly adv.
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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Nihilist

Ni"hil*ist\, n. [Cf. F. nihiliste. See Nihilism.]

1. One who advocates the doctrine of nihilism; one who believes or teaches that nothing can be known, or asserted to exist.

2. (Politics) A member of a secret association (esp. in Russia), which is devoted to the destruction of the present political, religious, and social institutions.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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