dualism
noun
Simple meaning
The doctrine that reality consists of two basic opposing elements, often taken to be mind and matter, or good and evil.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
doouhlihzuhmSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈduəlɪzəm
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
philosophy
The doctrine that reality consists of two basic opposing elements, often taken to be mind and matter (or mind and body), or good and evil
philosophy
The view that the world consists of, or is explicable in terms of, two fundamental principles, such as mind and matter or good and evil.
theology
The belief that the world is ruled by a pair of antagonistic forces, such as good and evil; the belief that man has two basic natures, the physical and the spiritual.
Duality; the condition of being double.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The doctrine that reality consists of two basic opposing elements, often taken to be mind and matter (or mind and body), or good and evil
Used this way, dualism is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in academic writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Academic writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Doctrine / view
Other combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.