Words / N / General

nominalism

noun/ˈnɒmɪnəlɪzəm/

C2CEFR level
88/100Rarity: very rare
TechnicalRegister

The doctrine that abstract universals are merely names, with only particular things really existing.

A strict nominalism denies that 'redness' exists apart from the individual red objects we see.

Similar: conceptualism, anti-realism

Origin: Latin 'nomen' name.

Topic: metaphysics in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More general words: metaphysics