omniscience

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Medieval Latin omniscientia (“all-knowledge”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin omni- (“all”), and scient from the Latin scientia (“knowledge”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑmˈnɪʃəns/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ɒmˈnɪʃəns/

Noun

omniscience (countable and uncountable, plural omnisciences)

1. The capacity to know everything.
   • 1848,, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 15:

     If, a few pages back, the present writer claimed the privilege of peeping into Miss Amelia Sedley's bedroom, and understanding with the omniscience the novelist all the gentle pains and passions which were tossing upon that innocent pillow, why should he not declare himself to be Rebecca's confidante too, master of her secrets, and seal-keeper of that young woman's conscience?

   Many people believe in God's omniscience.

Related terms

• omniscient

Translations

capacity to know everything

• Catalan: omnisciència f
• Czech: vševědoucnost f
• Dutch: alwetendheid (nl) f
• Finnish: kaikkitietävyys
• French: omniscience (fr)
• German: Allwissenheit (de) f
• Hungarian: mindentudás
• Icelandic: alviska (is) f
• Irish: uilefhios m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: onniscienza (it)
• Macedonian: сезнајност f (seznajnost)
• Polish: wszechwiedza f
• Portuguese: omnisciência f (Portugal), onisciência f (Brazil)
• Russian: всеве́дение (ru) n (vsevédenije)
• Serbo-Croatian: sveznanje, sveznalaštvo
• Spanish: omnisciencia (es) f
• Tagalog: pagkataluslahat

Further reading

• “omniscience”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “omniscience”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “omniscience”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “omniscience”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

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French

Etymology

(deprecated template usage) [etyl] Medieval Latin omniscientia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔm.ni.sjɑ̃s/
• Homophone: omnisciences
• Hyphenation: om‧ni‧science

Noun

omniscience f (plural omnisciences)

1. omniscience

Further reading

• “omniscience”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.