chiliasm
/ˈkɪ.lɪæ.z(ə)m/
chiliasm noun: belief in an earthly thousand-year period of peace and prosperity, sometimes equated with the return of Jesus for that period.
Noun (1)
chiliasm (plural chiliasms)
- Belief in an earthly thousand-year period of peace and prosperity, sometimes equated with the return of Jesus for that period.
- It was, however, in the Puritan movement in England, and in similar movements on the continent — especially the Bohemian Brethren — that chiliasm asserted its greatest vitality as an historical force.1975, Gershom Gerhard Scholem (translated by R. J. Zwi Werblowsky), Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626-1676, page 101
- One of them, bureaucratic conservatism, represented the routinized sphere of administration, whereas the other, chiliasm, gave rise to the utopian consciousness and modern politics.1985, Colin Loader, The Intellectual Development of Karl Mannheim, page 104
- Synonyms:
- millenarianism, premillennialism
Noun (2) capitalized: Chiliasm
Chiliasm (plural Chiliasms)
- Alternative form of chiliasm.
Synonyms of chiliasm
Forms of chiliasm
| plural | chiliasms |
|---|---|
| alternative form | Chiliasm |
| plural | Chiliasms |
Origin of chiliasm
From Ancient Greek χιλιασμός (khiliasmós), from χίλιοι (khílioi, “thousand”).
Questions about chiliasm
- What does chiliasm mean?
- Chiliasm means belief in an earthly thousand-year period of peace and prosperity, sometimes equated with the return of Jesus for that period.
- What part of speech is chiliasm?
- Chiliasm is a noun.
- How do you pronounce chiliasm?
- Chiliasm is pronounced /ˈkɪ.lɪæ.z(ə)m/ (UK).
- What is the plural of chiliasm?
- The plural of chiliasm is chiliasms.
Words near chiliasm in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: chiliasm (page history and authors); Chiliasm (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-chiliasm.wav.
Cite this entry: “chiliasm.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chiliasm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.