nihilist
nihilist Lexical Profile
nihilist Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A person who believes that life is meaningless and rejects all religious and moral principles.
"As a self-proclaimed nihilist, he argued that human existence has no intrinsic purpose or objective value."
A member of a 19th-century Russian revolutionary movement that rejected the authority of the state, church, and family in favor of radical social change.
"In 1881, a group of Russian nihilists orchestrated the assassination of Tsar Alexander II."
• adjective
Relating to or characteristic of nihilism; rejecting established moral truths, values, or authority.
"The novel explores the bleak, nihilist worldview of a generation disillusioned by war."
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in the early 19th century from Latin 'nihil' (nothing) plus the suffix '-ist'. It gained widespread political prominence in the 1860s through Ivan Turgenev's novel 'Fathers and Sons' to describe Russian revolutionaries who rejected all established authority.