Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Having total knowledge; knowing everything.
- noun One having total knowledge.
- noun God. Used with the.
from The Century Dictionary.
- All-knowing; possessing knowledge of all things; having infinite or universal knowledge: as, God only is omniscient.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Having universal knowledge; knowing all things; infinitely knowing or wise.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Having
total knowledge .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective infinitely wise
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Her unironic use of the n-word (in omniscient narration, not spoken by a character) in the opening pages of The Violent Bear It Away should make anyone this side of Strom Thurmond squirm, something she seems to have realized, since it was edited out of later editions.
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Rob, I would never write anything in omniscient POV.
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Point of view issues: the first-person omniscient is extremely difficult to carry off without making me run away, far away, very quickly.
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It's Holmes from his own point of view (the book is in omniscient, but it stays tightly tied to his point of view most of the time, and some passages are told as if from his own pen) and it's actually done well, something I'm not sure I've ever seen before.
"I cannot say with any degree of certainty. I really cannot say."
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I suppose third omniscient is easier when you’re writing something with so large a scope.
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So-called omniscient narration, he argues, is "almost impossible": narrative about a character tends to "take on his or her way of thinking and speaking."
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When used in narrative, it often indicates a POV shift from close third to omniscient, that is when 'they' includes the POV character.
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Janes chooses to write from what may be called the omniscient viewpoint.
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Janes chooses to write from what may be called the omniscient viewpoint.
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Janes chooses to write from what may be called the omniscient viewpoint.
bilby commented on the word omniscient
Me: Can you help me to find peace?
God: Certainly, I have an extensive built-in help system.
Me: Flop out the good vibes then. Please.
God: What is vibrating and what is causing it to vibrate?
Me: I thought you were omniscient?
God: I don't know whether or not I am omniscient.
- from a conversation with a chatbot known as iGod.
February 16, 2009
sherry28 commented on the word omniscient
"Her seemingly omniscient ideas were inerrant." From: Why people believe weird things . Author : Micheal Shermer . Page 117.
November 22, 2010
sjb0926 commented on the word omniscient
The recorded Macmillan pronunciation on this entry disagrees with the pronunciation written out above it. Can bad pronunciations be deleted?
May 16, 2011