Animism

//ˈænɪmɪzəm// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A belief that spirits inhabit some or all classes of natural objects or phenomena. countable, uncountable

    ""I'm not entirely comfortable with the level of animism you and Hanners display towards that thing.""

  2. 2
    the doctrine that all natural objects and the universe itself have souls wordnet
  3. 3
    A belief that an immaterial force animates the universe. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    A doctrine that animal life is produced by an immaterial spirit. countable, dated, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
absolute idealismallotheismanimatismatomismberkeleianismform

Example

More examples

"I do not dismiss the many forms of Animism, including Shinto and Dao, as well as other Native around this world."

Etymology

From anima + -ism, from Latin anima (“life", "breath", "soul”). Dated sense from German Animismus, coined c. 1720 by physicist/chemist Georg Ernst Stahl (1660-1734) See anima mundi.

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