Wiktionary:Word of the day/2020/August 25

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Word of the day
for August 25
nihilism n
  1. (usually uncountable) The view that all endeavours are devoid of objective meaning.
  2. (usually uncountable) The rejection of, or opposition to, religious beliefs, (inherent or objective) moral principles, legal rules, etc., often due to the view that life is meaningless (sense 1).
  3. (usually uncountable, politics) The rejection of non-proven or non-rationalized assertions in the social and political spheres of society.
  4. (uncountable, psychiatry) A delusion that oneself or the world, or parts thereof, have ceased to exist.
  5. (uncountable, Russia, politics, historical) Alternative letter-case form of Nihilism (“a Russian movement of the 1860s that rejected all authority and promoted the use of violence for political change”)
  6. (countable, uncountable, philosophy) A doctrine grounded on the negation of one or more meaningful aspects of life; in particular, the view that nothing in the world actually exists.
  7. (countable) Something that is regarded as meaningless.

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, known for his view that nihilism is a widespread phenomenon of Western culture, died on this day 120 years ago in 1900.

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