monotheism
/ˌmɑnoʊ̯ˈθiɪzm̩/ noun
Forms monotheisms mono-theism
- noun (obsolete) Belief in the One True God, defined by More as personal, immaterial and trinitarian.
- noun The belief in a single deity (one god or goddess); especially within an organized religion.
- noun The belief that God is one person (Judaism, Unitarian Christianity, Islam), not three persons (Trinitarian Christianity, Hinduism)
Antonyms
Etymology
A learned 17th-century coinage, mono- + theism, from (μονός (monós, “one”)) and (θεός (theós, “god, deity”) + -ισμός (-ismós)) The term parallels the earlier polytheism, atheism (the simplex theism being slightly later).
The term was coined by Henry More, ca. 1660, in explicit juxtaposition with both atheism and polytheism. It was redefined through etymological fallacy by Daniel Webster ca. 1828.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [Mono- + Gr. monothéisme.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “monotheism”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details