agathism means the doctrine that the ultimate end of all things is good, although the intermediate means may be evil. It carries an Arena rating of 1610, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, agathism ranks #1,435 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #1,613 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #5,152 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #5,509 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words.
Why “agathism” is a great word
The belief that all things tend ultimately toward the good, however fraught or malign the path may be. From Ancient Greek ἀγαθός (agathós, 'good') + the English suffix -ism (denoting a doctrine or system); first attested in 1830. Unlike optimism, which is a sunny expectation of favorable outcomes, or pessimism, a conviction of inherent badness, agathism is a stern, long-view faith in a redemptive terminus. It is the quiet conviction in the surgeon’s necessary cut, the seedling cracking the paving stone, and the river's silt, carried from a drowned village, nourishing a distant field—a doctrine not of present comfort, but of ultimate reconciliation written in a difficult hand.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek ἀγαθός (agathós, “good”) + -ism.
noun
- The doctrine that the ultimate end of all things is good, although the intermediate means may be evil.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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