Other forms: atheists
An atheist is a person who believes there is no god. A committed atheist, an atheist upbringing, atheist and agnostic.
The line usually drawn is that an atheist asserts there is no god and an agnostic holds that it cannot be known, though many people use the words more loosely than that. Atheism is not a single position: it covers everything from active denial to simple absence of belief. Note atheistic; and that the Greek word means simply godless, and was used as an accusation long before anybody claimed it.
1nounatheistA person who believes there is no god.
“He was raised a Catholic but became an atheist as a young man.”
atheist is a person's belief.
Greek atheos means godless — a- plus theos, god. Theology, enthusiasm and Theodore come from the same god, and atheos was an insult before it was a label anybody accepted.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰeh₁-
Ancient Greek
ἄθεος — godless, without god
Latin
atheos
Middle French
athéiste
English, today
atheist
Built from
From a- + theist. From Middle French athéiste (athée + -iste), from Latin atheos, from Ancient Greek ἄθεος (“godless, without god”), from ἀ- (“without”) + θεός (“god”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA