Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God.
- n. One who is skeptical about the existence of God but does not profess true atheism.
- n. One who is doubtful or noncommittal about something.
- adj. Relating to or being an agnostic.
- adj. Doubtful or noncommittal: "Though I am agnostic on what terms to use, I have no doubt that human infants come with an enormous 'acquisitiveness' for discovering patterns” ( William H. Calvin).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One of a class of thinkers who disclaim any knowledge of God or of the ultimate nature of things. They hold that human knowledge is limited to experience, and that since the absolute and unconditioned, if it exists at all, cannot fall within experience, we have no right to assert anything whatever with regard to it.
- Pertaining to the agnostics or their doctrines; expressing ignorance or unknow-ableness.
Wiktionary
- n. A person who holds to a form of agnosticism, especially uncertainty of the existence of a deity.
- adj. Of or relating to agnosticism or its adherents.
- adj. Doubtful or uncertain about the existence or demonstrability of God or other deity.
- adj. computing A software component (or other entity) that is unaware or noncommittal regarding the specific nature of the components with which it interacts; polymorphic; modular; pluggable
- adj. Having no firmly held opinions on an issue or matter of uncertainty.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Professing ignorance; involving no dogmatic; pertaining to or involving agnosticism.
- n. One who professes ignorance, or denies that we have any knowledge, save of phenomena; one who supports agnosticism, neither affirming nor denying the existence of a personal Deity, a future life, etc.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. uncertain of all claims to knowledge
- n. someone who is doubtful or noncommittal about something
- adj. of or pertaining to an agnostic or agnosticism
- n. a person who claims that they cannot have true knowledge about the existence of God (but does not deny that God might exist)
Etymologies
- First attested in 1870; coined by Thomas Huxley. Either from Ancient Greek ἄγνωστος (agnōstos, "ignorant, not knowing") or from a- + Gnostic. Deriving (either way) from Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, "not") + γιγνώσκω (gignōskō, "I know"). (Wiktionary)
- a-1 + Gnostic. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It took Huxley a full two decades to respond to his friend's adjustment of his term agnostic, but when he did respond he tried to put Spencer right on at least one key point about the risks of mythologizing the unknowable, of turning it into a kind of negative Absolute.”
The Huffington Post: Christopher Lane: Debates About Agnosticism Are As Old As The Concept Itself
“To those who've forgotten that the man who coined the term agnostic was also Darwin's self-appointed "bulldog," fiercely defending his work and discovery against the jibes of a derisive, behind-the-times Church of England, it's worth remembering that Huxley in turn criticized Spencer for not only making agnosticism require a static, permanent doubt, but also for failing to underline some of the worst social consequences of religion.”
The Huffington Post: Christopher Lane: Debates About Agnosticism Are As Old As The Concept Itself
“Considering his substantial differences with Spencer, why didn't Huxley do more to intervene over what he saw as misuse of the term agnostic?”
The Huffington Post: Christopher Lane: Debates About Agnosticism Are As Old As The Concept Itself
“The term agnostic talks about the existence of God being unknown or unknowable.”
“Instead, like many other agnostics at the time -- including Leslie Stephen, George Eliot, Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley who coined the term agnostic three decades earlier, in 1869 -- he thought belief should rest on evidence, not faith, but also that evidence itself was in some key instances wanting.”
“I don't prefer the term agnostic because agnosticism is often used as a weak term that means I'm not sure if the guy with the beard on the cloud exists or doesn't exist.”
“I am in that sense an empiricist who objects to the metaphysical position Huxley who first coined the term agnostic proposed in his definition of agnosticism.”
“In fact while Thomas Huxley was the person who coined the term agnostic it was Stephen who popularized it.”
“The use of the term agnostic means that a vast majority of climatologists think that there is something out there, they just don’t know what it is.”
Think Progress » Groups Attacking Global Warming Science Attack ThinkProgress
“She misunderstood the term agnostic, and it’s meaning.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘agnostic’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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@vcb.etym.prjct - SAT WORD DUMP - as ...
The words on this list SAT regulars that I haven't sorted and grouped yet. It's like my wordy holding pen. get it? holding the pen to write a word? HA! I love how lame my humor is.
iconoclast, glacial, agnostic, histrionic, treacly, contemptuous, captious, bombastic, bombast, perfidy, quiescence, sordid and 148 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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G[r]eek
A collection of words found in English that are either purely Greek or have Greek etymology.
Please add with caution and certainty. Will be regularly updated by me.etymology, philosophy, laconic, disharmony, patriarchic, archaic, phlogiston, aether, aeon, angel, arachnid, rhythm and 346 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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Genes
Interesting gene names. Some of these may have changed recently (to something less offensive/funny).
http://www.genenames.org/
tinman, agnostic, dreadlocks, Van Gogh, fruitless, lava lamp, ariadne, cheap date, ken and barbie, I'm not dead yet, I'm not dead yet 2, manic fringe and 1192 more... -
TECH - web application frameworks
limit, pack, automatic, HTTP, database, poi, event, coverage, core, hibernate, function, product and 310 more...
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Realia from Everywhere
Culturally defined terms and expressions from the four corners of the world
fjord, mistral steppe, tornado, tsunami, polder, kiwi, koala, sequoia, Abominable Snowman, paprika, spaghetti, empanada and 299 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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others
impish, inebriate, contentious, thwart, money laundering, cobber, ombudsman, exchequer, sordid, bog, braggadocio, spooky and 10 more...
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Ezzackly's list
Words I like.
exacerbate, queerious, whom, hyperbolic, paradoxically, consequently, anana, forte, indicative, agnostic, monotonous, supposedly and 18 more...
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Words with that horrible 'gn' sound
pregnant, interregnum, impregnable, signal, signature, prognosis, ignorant, ignominious, magnum, diagnosis, designation, incognito and 37 more...
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phil vocab 3
genocide, superfluous, warfare, indissoluble, sentient, confound, pernicious, dispose, render, amiable, paradox, puritanical and 36 more...
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Random Words
lochia, confused, innoxious, naive, cockatrice, derisive, parsley, passive, casual, football, innuendo, Rumanian and 174 more...
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ChortleGiggleSnort
Significant Words- Guiding you on your path to Snazzibility
flimsy, feeble, ranting, ramble, narky, snazzy, yoghurt, bulbous, pustule, globulous, geranium, megalomaniac and 521 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for agnostic.
rolig I just don't know. May 9, 2009
yarb I guess it evens out, ezzackly, 'cause y'see, I think many people who call themselves agnostic are actually atheists! May 9, 2009
ezzackly I've turned so many people on to this word. Many people who refer to themselves as atheist are not. May 9, 2009
mcritz Scored a bingo with scrabble. Sep 25, 2008
abraxaszugzwang "The only thing I know is that I know nothing" - Socrates Jan 23, 2007