WORD OF THE DAY: OMNISCIENT
adjective | ahm-NISH-unt
What It Means
Omniscient describes someone or something with unlimited knowledge or understanding.
// “You’ll need to tell me when you don’t understand something I’ve explained,” Maria said. “I’m not omniscient, you know.”
Examples of OMNISCIENT
“The Abrahamic faiths conceive of God as an omniscient creator and generally abjure gambling as a result; one of the first laws passed by the Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony banned the possession of cards, dice, or gaming tables.” — Idrees Kahloon, The New Yorker, 2 Sept. 2024
Did You Know?
One who is omniscient literally knows all. The word omniscient traces back to two Latin roots: omni-, meaning “all” or “universally,” and the noun scientia, meaning “knowledge.” You will recognise omni- as the prefix that tells all in such words as omnivorous (“eating all,” or in actual use, “eating both plants and animals”) and omnipotent (“all-powerful”). Scientia comes from the Latin verb scīre, meaning “to know,” which likewise has a number of other knowledge-related descendants in English, including conscience, science, and prescience (meaning “foreknowledge”).
Merriam Webster Dictionary
