nescience

American  

[nesh-uhns, nesh-ee-uhns, nes-ee-] / ˈnɛʃ əns, ˈnɛʃ i əns, ˈnɛs i- /

noun

1. lack of knowledge; ignorance.

2. agnosticism.

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nescience British  

/ ˈnɛsɪəns /

noun

1. a formal or literary word for ignorance

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Other Word Forms

• nescient adjective
• nonnescience noun
• nonnescient adjective

Etymology

Origin of nescience

First recorded in 1605–15; from Late Latin nescientia “ignorance,” from nescient-, the stem of nesciēns, present participle of nescīre “to be ignorant, not to know,” equivalent to ne- “not” + scientia “knowledge”; see science

Example Sentences

This science, alone of sciences, must, by all available means, promulgate and prolong its opposite nescience; otherwise the science itself is impossible.

From Unto This Last and Other Essays on Political Economy by Ruskin, John

But total negation is not the result,—only nescience.

From Orthodoxy: Its Truths And Errors by Clarke, James Freeman

Judging, however, by the Algonquin's replies to Champlain's catechising, his mental attitude was one of admirable neutrality, securely founded on nescience, regarding any or all of the doctrines in debate between Rome and Geneva.

From Count Frontenac Makers of Canada, Volume 3 by LeSueur, William Dawson

At the very same time the two schools were born into the modern world, and the re-proclamation of Theosophy, the supreme knowledge, was the answer from the invisible worlds to the nescience of Science.

From London Lectures of 1907 by Besant, Annie Wood

Our exuberant nescience in matters Sternian extends up to the very publication of Tristram, as far as the determining causes of its production are concerned.

From The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Sterne, Laurence