Word
Of
The
Day
omniscient
omniscient \ahm-NISH-unt\
adjective
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."
See the entry >
Examples:
"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 recognize
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").