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nihilist

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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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Cultural Dictionary

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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Word Origin & History

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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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: ni·hi·lism
Pronunciation: 'nI-(h)&-"liz-&m, 'nE-
Function: noun
1 : NIHILISTIC DELUSION
2 : skepticism as to the value of a drug or method of treatment nihilism> —ni·hi·lis·tic /"nI-(h)&-'lis-tik, "nE-/ adjective
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

nihilism ni·hil·ism (nī'ə-lĭz'əm, nē'-)
n.

  1. The belief that destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement.

  2. 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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