agnostic
part of speech
noun (an agnostic, agnostics); adjective (agnostic)
meaning for a pupil
1) A person who believes that we cannot know for sure whether God exists, so they do not say yes or no. tree →
2) (adjective) Not sure or not deciding about something: «I'm agnostic about pineapple on pizza.» tree →
3) (computers) Working with any kind of system: «a device-agnostic app» works on any phone or computer. tree →
sense in the lessons
In religion and ethics lessons agnostic is set beside believer (theist) and atheist (someone who believes there is no God); pupils learn to respect all three. In everyday and computer talk it means «not choosing a side». Phrases: «an agnostic», «I'm agnostic about…», «platform-agnostic».
examples
- My uncle says he is an agnostic: he doesn't know if God is real. tree →
- An atheist says there is no God; an agnostic says we can't be sure. tree →
- Our class learned that Christians, atheists and agnostics can still be good friends. tree →
- I'm agnostic about whether cats or dogs are better. tree →
- The game is platform-agnostic, so it runs on any console. tree →
- She grew up agnostic but later went to church. tree →
note
Use «an» because it starts with a vowel sound: «an agnostic». Noun for the belief: agnosticism. Trap: agnostic is not the same as atheist. From Greek «a-» (not) + «gnosis» (knowledge).
In the corpora
- An atheist believes there is no God; an agnostic thinks we cannot know whether there is.
- An agnostic is someone who says we cannot know for sure what happens after death.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «agnostic» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.