Noun

(en noun)

a scholar of one of the subjects in the humanities

a person who believes in the philosophy of humanism

(historical) In the Renaissance, a scholar of Greek and Roman classics

Noun

(en noun)

(narrowly) A person who believes that no deities exist (qualifier).

* {{quote-book, date = 1571-10-20

, first = Arthur , last = Golding , chapter = The Epistle Dedicatory , title = Psalmes of Dauid and others, with M. 's Commentaries , url = http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/calvin/cc08/cc08004.htm , passage = Ageine, the Atheistes , which say in their hartes there is no God; }}

* {{quote-magazine, date = 1953-11-03

, first = Bertrand , last = Russell , authorlink = Bertrand Russell , title = What is an Agnostic? , magazine = Look , url = http://scepsis.ru/eng/articles/id_5.php , passage = An atheist', like a Christian, holds that we ''can'' know whether or not there is a God. The Christian holds that we can know there is a God; the ' atheist , that we can know there is not. }}

(broadly) A person who rejects belief that any deities exist (whether or not that person believes that deities do not exist).

* {{quote-magazine, year = 1843

, title = A Reciprocal Dialogue , first = G. J. , last = Holyoake , authorlink = George Holyoake , editors = Paterson, Thomas , magazine = , volume = 2 , issue = 64 , page = 89 , url = http://books.google.com/books?id=1apbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA89&dq=atheism , passage = Minister—Are you really an Atheist ?
Atheist—Yes.
M.—Do you deny that there is a god?
A.—No. I deny that there is sufficient reason to believe there is one. There may be a god, but I think it rather unlikely. }}

* {{quote-book, date = 2006-09-18

, first = Richard , last = Dawkins , title = The God Delusion , publisher = Houghton Mifflin , location = Boston , chapter = The God Hypothesis , page = 51 , edition = 1st Am. , isbn = 978-0618680009 , lccn = 2006015506 , id = , ol = 7606171M , url = http://books.google.com/books?id=yq1xDpicghkC&pg=PA73 , passage = Very low probability, but short of zero. De facto atheist . ‘I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there.’ }}

(loosely) A person who has no belief in any deities, such as a person who has no concept of deities.

* {{quote-book, year = 1772

, original = Le Bon-Sens, ou, Idées Naturelles opposées aux Idées Surnaturelles , by = , year_published = 2004 , title = Good Sense without God: Or Freethoughts Opposed to Supernatural Ideas , location = London , publisher = W. Stewart , section = §30 , page = 21 , url = http://books.google.com/books?id=vTqR5r1_DqYC&pg=PA21 , passage = All children are born Atheists ; they have no idea of God. Are they then criminal on account of their ignorance? }}

* {{quote-book, year = 1910

, title = The Vermont Digest 1789-1905 , publisher = Free Press Printing Co , location = Burlington , volume = 2 , url = http://books.google.com/books?id=HlgWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR137 , passage = Atheists. One who does not believe in the existence of a Supreme Being, an atheist , is incompetent as a witness, being incapable of being sworn. [...] Changed by Acts of 1851, No. 12 (P. S. 1593), under which, no question can be raised as to a witness's "opinions on matters of religious belief." }}

(loosely, uncommon) A person who does not believe in a particular deity (or any deity in a particular pantheon), notwithstanding that they may believe in another deity.

* {{quote-book, year = 1840

, first = Edward , last = Gibbon , authorlink = Edward Gibbon , title = The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , edition = new , volume = 1 , chapter = 16 , page = 183 , passage = Malice and pejudice concurred in representing the christians(SIC) as a society of atheists , who, by the most daring attack on the religious constitution of the empire, had merited the severest animadversion of the civil magistrate. }}

* {{quote-video, year = 2002

, month = February , first = Richard , last = Dawkins , title = Richard Dawkins on militant atheism , work = TED , url = http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/richard_dawkins_on_militant_atheism.html , passage = An atheist' is just somebody who feels about Yahweh the way any decent Christian feels about Thor or Baal or the golden calf. As has been said before, we are all ' atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. }}