Anthropism

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The belief that human beings have a spiritual nature beyond the physical body characterized by in-dwelling Divinity. uncountable

    "Such a representation would present a real difficulty, if we were obliged to understand all this in its strict literal import, implying, as it would, very unworthy conceptions of God on the part of the writer. The difficulty vanishes, however, when it is perceived that this is only and instance of a prevailing anthropism which characterises the whole narrative."

  2. 2
    The belief that human beings are fundamentally different from everything else in nature and that the world was made for them. uncountable

    "Such a representation would present a real difficulty, if we were obliged to understand all this in its strict literal import, implying, as it would, very unworthy conceptions of God on the part of the writer. The difficulty vanishes, however, when it is perceived that this is only and instance of a prevailing anthropism which characterises the whole narrative."

Example

More examples

"Such a representation would present a real difficulty, if we were obliged to understand all this in its strict literal import, implying, as it would, very unworthy conceptions of God on the part of the writer. The difficulty vanishes, however, when it is perceived that this is only and instance of a prevailing anthropism which characterises the whole narrative."

Etymology

From anthrop- + -ism.

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