atomist

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an adherent of atomism, especially the doctrine that matter or reality consists of indivisible elementary particles

   Democritus is remembered as an ancient atomist who explained change through moving particles.

2. 2
   noun

   historical: a supporter of a scientific atomic theory

   The nineteenth-century atomist treated chemical reactions as rearrangements of atoms.

Formed from atom + -ist after atomism. Atom comes through Latin atomus from Greek atomos ("uncut, indivisible"), from a- ("not") + temnein ("to cut"). The label has been applied both to ancient philosophical atomism and to later scientific atomic theories.

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