Sadduceeism

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The practices, beliefs, or characteristics of the Sadducees. uncountable, usually
  2. 2
    Perceived skepticism regarding the supernatural or divine, especially angels, resurrection and witches; moderate atheism. archaic, uncountable, usually

    "That though Philosophical Discourses to justifie the common belief about Witches, are nothing at all to them, or those of their measure; yet they are too seasonable and necessary for our Age, in which Atheism is begun in Sadducism; And those that dare not bluntly say, There is NO GOD, content themselves (for a fair step and Introduction) to deny there are SPIRITS or WITCHES."

Example

More examples

"That though Philosophical Discourses to justifie the common belief about Witches, are nothing at all to them, or those of their measure; yet they are too seasonable and necessary for our Age, in which Atheism is begun in Sadducism; And those that dare not bluntly say, There is NO GOD, content themselves (for a fair step and Introduction) to deny there are SPIRITS or WITCHES."

Etymology

From Sadducee + -ism.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.