Word.ws English Dictionary

man is the measure of all things

man is the measure of all things phrase: the doctrine that all knowledge is subjective, being derived from observations made by humans, and there can be no objective truth.

man is the measure of all things: the doctrine that all knowledge is subjective, being derived from observations made by humans, and...
Image: Leonardo da Vinci, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Phrase

man is the measure of all things

  1. (an expression of) the doctrine that all knowledge is subjective, being derived from observations made by humans, and there can be no objective truth

Origin of man is the measure of all things

According to Plato, the phrase was coined by Greek philosopher Protagoras.

Questions about man is the measure of all things

What does man is the measure of all things mean?
Man is the measure of all things means the doctrine that all knowledge is subjective, being derived from observations made by humans, and there can be no objective truth.
What part of speech is man is the measure of all things?
Man is the measure of all things is a phrase.

Words near man is the measure of all things in the dictionary

  1. man in the mirror
  2. man in the moon
  3. man in the street
  4. man in white
  5. man is a wolf to man
  6. man is the measure of all things
  7. man it out
  8. Man Jose
  9. man juice
  10. man lift
  11. man lifts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: man is the measure of all things (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:

Cite this entry: “man is the measure of all things.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/man_is_the_measure_of_all_things. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.