Word.ws English Dictionary

homoiousian

/hɒmɔɪˈuːzɪən/

homoiousian adjective: having a similar but not identical essence, especially with reference to the first and second persons of the Trinity.

Adjective

homoiousian (not comparable)

  1. Having a similar but not identical essence, especially with reference to the first and second persons of the Trinity.
    • Human ill-nature needs but some Homoiousian iota, or even the pretence of one; and will flow copiously through the eye of a needle: thus always must mortals go jargoning and fuming […].1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter III, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume II (The Constitution), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book IV (Varennes)

Noun

homoiousian (plural homoiousians)

  1. (historical) One of the Semi-Arians of the 4th century who held that the Son was of like, but not the same, essence or substance with the Father.
    • The Greek word, which was chosen to express this mysterious resemblance, bears so close an affinity to the orthodox symbol, that the profane of every age have derided the furious contests which the difference of a single diphthong excited between the Homoousians and the Homoiousians.1781, Edward Gibbon, chapter XXI, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume II, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 257

Forms of homoiousian

pluralhomoiousians

Origin of homoiousian

From Ancient Greek ὁμοιούσιος (homoioúsios), from ὅμοιος (hómoios, “like, similar”) + οὐσίᾱ (ousíā, “essence”).

Words formed from homoiousian

Questions about homoiousian

What does homoiousian mean?
Homoiousian means having a similar but not identical essence, especially with reference to the first and second persons of the Trinity.
What part of speech is homoiousian?
Homoiousian can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce homoiousian?
Homoiousian is pronounced /hɒmɔɪˈuːzɪən/.

Words near homoiousian in the dictionary

  1. homoiothermism
  2. homoiothermous
  3. homoiotherms
  4. homoiothermy
  5. homoiousia
  6. homoiousian
  7. homoiousianism
  8. homoiousians
  9. homoiousious
  10. homoisoflavane
  11. homoisoflavanes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: homoiousian (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.

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