atomism
noun
atomism is a noun meaning “The ancient Greek theory that all matter is composed of very small indestructible and indivisible particles” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled A-T-O-M-I-S-M, and it appears about once in every 17 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of atomism is atomisms.
What does atomism mean?
noun
- 1
The ancient Greek theory that all matter is composed of very small indestructible and indivisible particles.
- 2
The doctrine that society arises from individuals and that larger structures are unimportant.
- 3
The doctrine that only simples (atoms without parts) exist ultimately.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce atomism?
- US
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-atomism.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of atomism
- atomisms plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is atomism?
Atomism appears about once in every 17 million words in written English, the 125,655th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Atomism in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense ancient Greek theory:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Portuguese | atomismo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.