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nihilism

UK/ˈnaɪ.(h)ɪ.lɪz.m̩/US/ˈnaɪ.əˌlɪz.m̩/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,213 of 15,258leans written

Nihilism is the belief that nothing has meaning or value. Moral nihilism, a kind of nihilism, descend into nihilism.

Nietzsche is the name attached to it, though he described it as a coming crisis rather than a position he held. In ordinary use it means a shrug at everything, which is a good deal less careful than the philosophy.

Definitions of nihilism

  1. 1nounnihilismThe belief that nothing has meaning or value.C1

    “The novel's hero drifts into nihilism, believing that nothing he does will ever matter.”

nihilism is a belief.

Where it comes from

From Latin nihil, nothing, plus -ism, arriving through French and German.

  1. Latin

    nihilismus

  2. German

    Nihilismus

  3. French

    nihilisme

  4. English, today

    nihilism

Built from

  • nihilum · Latin — nothing
  • hīlum · Latin — a trifle; not in the least

Probably French nihilisme, German Nihilismus, or Latin nihilismus; the French, German, and Latin words are derived from Latin nihil (“indefinite nothing”), from nihilum (“nothing”), from ne- + hīlum (“a trifle; not in the least”). The English word is cognate with Italian nichilismo, Spanish nihilismo, Russian нигили́зм, philosophical doctrine grounded on negation of one or more meaningful aspects of life; emptiness; lack of education and cultural refinement.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

nihilism in the wild

  • Other nihilist positions include political, semantic, logical, and therapeutic nihilism.

    Nihilism

  • Moral nihilism today broadly tends to take the form of an error theory: the view developed originally by J.

    Moral nihilism

  • Error theory and nihilism broadly take the form of a negative claim about the existence of objective values or properties.

    Moral nihilism

  • Gillespie adds that nihilism was nevertheless at the core of revolutionary thought in Russia throughout the lead-up to the Russian Revolution.

    Russian nihilist movement

  • Altizer further states that Russian nihilism in fact had its deepest expression in a Bolshevist nihilism of the 20th century.

    Russian nihilist movement

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.