Allism
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A belief in the existence of all possible entities including past and future things or unactualised possibilities. uncountable
"Allism is the position of those who think that all these entities actually exist, and moreover, everything we can speak meaningfully about in some sense exists."
- 2 The rejection of creationism in all its forms (including intelligent design) and the assertion that evolution alone is responsible for the diversity of all living creatures. uncountable
"Let us call it Allism – since it is essentially the thesis that natural selection does it all."
- 3 Alternative form of Allism. alt-of, alternative, uncountable
- 4 A neurological condition characterised by the lack of autistic symptoms. humorous, uncountable, usually
Example
More examples"Allism is the position of those who think that all these entities actually exist, and moreover, everything we can speak meaningfully about in some sense exists."
Etymology
From all + -ism, coined by David Lewis in his 1989 paper "Noneism or Allism?".
From all + -ism, coined by Peter van Inwagen in 2009.
From allo- + -ism, coined by Andrew Main (Zefram) in 2003, in contradistinction to autism, where 'auto-' refers to a self-integrated neurology and 'allo-' refers to an other-integrated neurology.
Related phrases
More for "allism"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.