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View synonyms for neophyte

neophyte

[ nee-uh-fahyt ]

noun

  1. a beginner or novice:

    He's a neophyte at chess.

    Synonyms: tyro, greenhorn

  2. Roman Catholic Church. a novice.
  3. a person newly converted to a belief, as a heathen, heretic, or nonbeliever; proselyte.
  4. Primitive Church. a person newly baptized.


neophyte

/ ˌniːəʊˈfɪtɪk; ˈniːəʊˌfaɪt /

noun

  1. a person newly converted to a religious faith
  2. RC Church a novice in a religious order
  3. a novice or beginner
“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


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Derived Forms

  • neophytic, adjective
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Other Words From

  • ne·o·phyt·ic [nee-, uh, -, fit, -ik], ne·o·phyt·ish [nee, -, uh, -fahy-tish], adjective
  • ne·o·phyt·ism [nee, -, uh, -fahy-tiz-, uh, m], noun
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Word History and Origins

Origin of neophyte1

First recorded in 1540–50; from Late Latin neophytus “newly planted,” from Greek neóphytos; neo-, -phyte
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Word History and Origins

Origin of neophyte1

C16: via Church Latin from New Testament Greek neophutos recently planted, from neos new + phuton a plant
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Example Sentences

At Hu’s direction, the neophyte spies started building a network.

Summarizing all of them is all but impossible for a franchise neophyte, and yet you never have to know all of this information to enjoy whatever movie you’re sitting down to watch.

From Vox

Typically, teams with such a wide age disparity in their backcourt have had either a young star and a caretaker, or an older star and a precocious neophyte.

A political neophyte, Tikhanovskaya packed huge rallies, mobilizing thousands to march in protest, before fleeing last August across the border into Vilnius, where she now lives with her two children.

From Time

More and more, Nichols sought out talented people with complementary skills, so that even as a neophyte film director, his movies looked gorgeous, thanks to experienced craftspeople behind the scenes.

From Vox

For the aficionado or the neophyte, Comics is a useful overview of a richly creative period in a burgeoning art.

Reagan is a political neophyte in a fairly conventional campaign for governor of California.

Southerland was a political neophyte who owned a string of funeral homes when he won his seat in 2010.

The other thing the film got wrong was the premise that David was a neophyte, better suited for interviewing the Bee Gees.

I will confess, with some shame, that I am a Saunders neophyte.

Assarac smiled with the good-humoured superiority of an adept condescending to the crude intelligence of a neophyte.

Beladon looked on his chief with the admiration of a neophyte for some grand professor of his art.

Selina, in the drawing-room, diligently fingered and classed brown-black pressed weeds of her neophyte's botany-folios.

"Otherwise I should have preferred starving to coming here," answered the laconic neophyte.

But if, on the one hand, we had lost the neophyte's fire, we had perhaps gained a little in tolerance.

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