nihilism

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: ni=hil=ism

CIDE DICTIONARY

nihilism, n. [L. nihil nothing: cf. F. nihilisme. See Annihilate.].

•  Nothingness; nihility.  [1913 Webster]
•  The doctrine that nothing can be known; scepticism as to all knowledge and all reality.  [1913 Webster]
•  The theories and practices of the Nihilists.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

nihilism, n.
1 the rejection of all religious and moral principles.
2 an extreme form of scepticism maintaining that nothing has a real existence.

Derivative

nihilist n. nihilistic adj.

Etymology

L nihil nothing

THESAURUS

nihilism

Jacobinism, New Left, Old Left, agnosia, anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism, anarchy, antinomianism, block, blocking, chaos, confusion, criminal syndicalism, cynicism, defeatism, delirium, delusion, delusion of persecution, dismalness, disorder, disorderliness, disorganization, disorientation, disruption, extreme left, extreme left wing, extremism, flight of ideas, gloominess, gloomy outlook, hallucination, hallucinosis, left-wing extremism, lynch law, malism, mental block, mental confusion, misrule, mob law, mob rule, mobocracy, negativism, nihilistic delusion, ochlocracy, paralogia, pessimism, primal chaos, psychological block, radicalism, radicalization, rebellion, retreatism, revolution, revolutionism, sans-culotterie, sans-culottism, syndicalism, tohubohu, turmoil, ultraconservatism, ultraism, uncheerfulness, unruliness

ROGET THESAURUS

nihilism

Inexistence

N inexistence, nonexistence, nonsubsistence, nonentity, nil, negativeness, nullity, nihility, nihilism, tabula rasa, blank, abeyance, absence, no such thing, nonbeing, nothingness, oblivion, annihilation, extinction, extinguishment, extirpation, Nirvana, obliteration, inexistent, nonexistent, negative, blank, missing, omitted, absent, insubstantial, shadowy, spectral, visionary, unreal, potential, virtual, baseless, in nubibus, unsubstantial, vain, unborn, uncreated, unbegotten, unconceived, unproduced, unmade, perished, annihilated extinct, exhausted, gone, lost, vanished, departed, gone with the wind, defunct, fabulous, ideal, supposititious &c, negatively, virtually, non ens.

Laxity

N laxity, laxness, looseness, slackness, toleration, freedom, anarchy, interregnum, relaxation, loosening, remission, dead letter, brutum fulmen, misrule, license, licentiousness, insubordination, lynch law, nihilism, reign of violence, dethronement, deposition, usurpation, abdication, lax, loose, slack, remiss, weak, relaxed, licensed, reinless, unbridled, anarchical, unauthorized, adespotic.

Irreligion

N irreligion, indevotion, godlessness, ungodliness, laxity, quietism, skepticism, doubt, unbelief, disbelief, incredulity, incredulousness, want of faith, want of belief, pyrrhonism, bout, agnosticism, atheism, deism, hylotheism, materialism, positivism, nihilism, infidelity, freethinking, antichristianity, rationalism, neology, atheist, skeptic, unbeliever, deist, infidel, pyrrhonist, giaour, heathen, alien, gentile, Nazarene, espri fort, freethinker, latitudinarian, rationalist, materialist, positivist, nihilist, agnostic, somatist, theophobist, irreligious, indevout, undevout, devoutless, godless, graceless, ungodly, unholy, unsanctified, unhallowed, atheistic, without God, skeptical, freethinking, unbelieving, unconverted, incredulous, faithless, lacking faith, deistical, unchristian, antichristian, worldly, mundane, earthly, carnal, worldly minded, irreligiously.