omniscience

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin omniscientia (“all-knowledge”), from Latin omni- (“all”), and scient from the Latin scientia (“knowledge”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɑmˈnɪʃəns/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɒmˈnɪsiəns/

Noun

omniscience (countable and uncountable, plural omnisciences)

1. The capacity to know everything.
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 15, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     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

• Bulgarian: всезнание (bg) n (vseznanie)
• Catalan: omnisciència f
• Czech: vševědoucnost f
• Dutch: alwetendheid (nl) f
• Finnish: kaikkitietävyys
• French: omniscience (fr)
• Georgian: ყოვლისმცოდნეობა (q̇ovlismcodneoba)
• German: Allwissenheit (de) f
• Hungarian: mindentudás (hu)
• Icelandic: alviska (is) f
• Irish: uilefhios m
• Italian: onniscienza (it)
• Macedonian: сезнајност f (seznajnost), семудрост f (semudrost)
• 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
• Ukrainian: всезнання́ n (vseznannjá), усезнання́ n (useznannjá)

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 at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “omniscience”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

French

Etymology

Inherited from 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.