omniscient
Americanadjective
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having infinite knowledge or understanding
-
having very great or seemingly unlimited knowledge
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of omniscient
First recorded in 1595–1605; from New Latin omniscient-, stem of omnisciēns “all-knowing,” from Latin omni- omni- + sciēns “knowing” ( see science)
Explanation
To be omniscient is to know everything. This often refers to a special power of God. If you combine the Latin roots omnis (meaning "all") and scientia (meaning "knowledge"), you'll get omniscient, meaning "knowledge of all." It would be nice to be omniscient: then you would know absolutely everything in the world. Many religions have a god who is all-powerful and omniscient. This is how a god is supposed to know when you sinned, or what's going to happen in the future.
Vocabulary lists containing omniscient
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Essential Academic Vocabulary for Middle School Students, List 3
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Grade 9, List 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Nothing goes away,” the omniscient narrator observes of a ruined cottage that Tomás rebuilds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
Yet economic policy-makers are neither omniscient nor omnipotent.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 11, 2026
It must have been hard to balance so many perspectives, plotlines and an omniscient narrator on top of it all.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026
That is the way Moravia writes — except that you, reader, have been granted omniscient privileges to sit on his shoulder and copy all the answers!
From New York Times ● Feb. 3, 2024
An omniscient voice is already calling out each of our names as we enter the arena, the voice deep and reverberating, and as it does, each name rotates in flames in the arena’s center.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
