Hobbes

American

[hobz] / hɒbz /

noun

Thomas, 1588–1679, English philosopher and author.

Hobbes British

/ hɒbz /

noun

Thomas. 1588–1679, English political philosopher. His greatest work is the Leviathan (1651), which contains his defence of absolute sovereignty

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Hobbesian

noun

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.

"It's like if the Manhattan Project announced the nuclear bomb within a cute little Calvin and Hobbes cartoon."

From Barron's • Apr. 10, 2026

Some historians find its origins in the secular individualism of the 18th-century Enlightenment, or in the earlier political thought of John Locke or Thomas Hobbes.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 24, 2025

In the seventeenth century, Thomas Hobbes pegged laughter as the companion of scorn.

From Salon • Nov. 18, 2024

For Hobbes, the state of nature was so violent and chaotic that rational individuals would readily consent to the authority of an absolute monarch to establish law and order.

From Slate • May 9, 2024

So where did the three friends Hobbes, Digby and Charleton get the idea of the fact from?

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023