Meaning & use
Apophatic
Last updated
Describing or approaching something, especially the divine, by stating what it is not rather than what it is.
See it in a sentence
Apophatic theology holds that God's true nature can only be described through negation.
The mystic favored an apophatic silence over any positive claim about the infinite.
A note on using this word
Contrasts with "cataphatic" theology, which describes the divine through positive attributes.
Words with a similar meaning
negative theology
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
cataphatic
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