aniconist

A1N1I1C3O1N1I1S1T1

noun

A proponent of aniconism.

Scrabble 11

Meanings

nounaniconist (plural aniconists)

plural aniconists

  1. A proponent of aniconism.

    According to the aniconists, images idolize the world and blind the eyes from being able to look beyond the world and focus on the creator.

    2011, Josh Ellenbogen, Aaron Tugendhaft, Idol Anxiety, →ISBN, page 28
    2 more examples

    As can be legitimately surmised the aniconists must have rejected those texts which to them appeared to support Iconolatory, but from the point of view of the evolution of Jaina thought the texts rejected by them deserve as serious notice as those accepted by them.

    1971, Krishna Kumar Dixit, Jaina Ontology, page 2

    But idolatry means more than iconism. It is a polemical term which expresses a strong cultural/religious abomination and anxiety. With the term "idolatry," the "aniconists" refer to the "iconists" as the group where the strongest menace resides.

    2009, Jan Assmann, Moses the Egyptian, →ISBN, page 42
adjectiveaniconist (comparative more aniconist, superlative most aniconist)

comparative more aniconist · superlative most aniconist

  1. Pertaining to aniconism.

    Needless to say, figural expression about, and emerging from, a Muslim cultural context do not necessarily address, negotiate, or react to, aniconist claims.

    2008, Lars Eckstein, Barbara Korte, Eva Ulrike Pirker, Multi-ethnic Britain 2000+:, →ISBN
    2 more examples

    Islam was as fanatically monotheist and aniconist as any Jew could desire, and the sensational successes of its devotees in the military — and soon also in the missionary — field gave Christendom something new to think about.

    1946, Arnold Toynbee, David Churchill Somervell, A Study of History: Abridgement of Vols I-VI

    However, given the attempts to enshrine the Holocaust in the shroud of aniconism (as is evident from the ferocity of the debates surrounding Adorno), it also suggests the potential of Zionis cultural outputs to liberate Holocaust representation from the restrictive framework of aniconist tendencies.

    2015, Hannah Ewence, Helen Spurling, Visualizing Jews Through the Ages, →ISBN

Origin

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

aniconist. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/aniconist

MLA

“aniconist.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/aniconist. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “aniconist,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/aniconist.

Source: aniconist on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.