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
Robert F. Worth, The Atlantic, 31 Oct. 2024
Many of them reported regularly reading online materials and watching YouTube videos of other atheists and skeptics.
—Darren E. Sherkat, Foreign Affairs, 22 June 2015
One survey of 2,561 DMT users found that more than half who identified as atheists before their DMT trips no longer identified as atheist afterward.
—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
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Cite this Entry
“Atheist.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atheist. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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