Omniscient
adjective
Knowing everything.
The omniscient narrator knows all the characters' thoughts and feelings.
Often appears as...
- omniscient narrator
- omniscient being
Usage tips
Literary
adjective
In religion, if God or a deity is described as omniscient, they know everything that can be known.
In many religions, God is perceived as an omniscient entity.
Often appears as...
- omniscient god
- omniscient deity
Usage tips
Academic
adjective
Knowing everything.
The omniscient narrator knows all the characters' thoughts and feelings.
Often appears as...
- omniscient narrator
- omniscient being
Usage tips
Literary
adjective
In religion, if God or a deity is described as omniscient, they know everything that can be known.
In many religions, God is perceived as an omniscient entity.
Often appears as...
- omniscient god
- omniscient deity
Usage tips
Academic
Definition 1 of 2
Pro Tip 1/3Literary Device
Used to present an all-knowing viewpoint in stories, allowing insights into characters' minds.
The omniscient perspective made the novel captivating.
Pro Tip 2/3Narrative Voice
'Omniscient' can describe a narrator who provides more information than any one character could know.
He wrote with an omniscient voice, revealing everyone's secrets.
Pro Tip 3/3Author's Tool
Authors use an omniscient viewpoint to build a complex, multi-layered narrative.
The omniscient viewpoint intertwined the characters' stories beautifully.
Pro Tip 1/3Literary Device
Used to present an all-knowing viewpoint in stories, allowing insights into characters' minds.
The omniscient perspective made the novel captivating.
Pro Tip 2/3Narrative Voice
'Omniscient' can describe a narrator who provides more information than any one character could know.
He wrote with an omniscient voice, revealing everyone's secrets.
Pro Tip 3/3Author's Tool
Authors use an omniscient viewpoint to build a complex, multi-layered narrative.
The omniscient viewpoint intertwined the characters' stories beautifully.
Pro Tip 1/3Literary Device
Used to present an all-knowing viewpoint in stories, allowing insights into characters' minds.
The omniscient perspective made the novel captivating.
Pro Tip 2/3Narrative Voice
'Omniscient' can describe a narrator who provides more information than any one character could know.
He wrote with an omniscient voice, revealing everyone's secrets.
Pro Tip 3/3Author's Tool
Authors use an omniscient viewpoint to build a complex, multi-layered narrative.
The omniscient viewpoint intertwined the characters' stories beautifully.
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Video examples
Jonathan Harris: The web...
photographs, movies, even lectures like this one -- we're very accustomed to this idea of the narrator or the camera position, some kind of omniscient, external body through whose eyes you see the story. We're very used to this. But if you think about real life, it's not like that at all. I mean, in real life, things are much more nuanced and complex,
Video examples
How to make your writing...
So what are some techniques you can use to achieve this in your own writing? Limit the point of view. Instead of an omniscient narrator who can see and relay everything that happens, tell the story from the perspective of the characters. They may start off knowing just as little as the audience does,
Video examples
First person vs. Second...
But that can be good for stories where a feeling of distance is important. A third person narrator can be either limited, meaning they stick close to one character’s thoughts and feelings, or they can be omniscient, able to flit between characters’ minds and give the reader more information.
Video examples
Virginia Postrel: The...
but also not so far above us that we can't identify with the person. In some sense, there has to be something like us. So as I say, in religious art, you know, God is not glamorous. God cannot be glamorous because God is omnipotent, omniscient -- too far above us.
Video examples
Lee Smolin: How science...
and those are defined with respect to some absolute, abstract notions of rights and justice, and so forth, which are independent of what else has happened in the society. Of who else there is, of the history and so forth. There is also an omniscient observer
Video examples
Can love and independence...
And the novel’s omniscient third-person narration allows Hurston to unleash her poetic prose on everything from birdsong, architecture, and fashion, to her characters’ deepest feelings and motivations. Perhaps more than any specific details,
Video examples
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein...
fields either work in one domain or the other but but this world seems to really get insights from both those kinds of approaches i think like you know the overarching lesson here is that um you know we are not omniscient
Video examples
Why should you read...
Ishmael becomes more of an omniscient guide for the reader than a traditional character. While Ahab obsesses over revenge and first mate Starbuck tries to reason with him, Ishmael takes us on his own quest for meaning
Video examples
Why democracy matters -...
stop that to stop pretending to be omniscient beings politicians also need to learn occasionally to say that certain things that voters want certain things that voters have been
Video examples
The legend of Annapurna,...
Lord Shiva— primordial destroyer of evil, slayer of demons, protector, and omniscient observer of the universe— was testing his wife’s patience.
Video examples
Jonathan Harris: The web...
photographs, movies, even lectures like this one -- we're very accustomed to this idea of the narrator or the camera position, some kind of omniscient, external body through whose eyes you see the story. We're very used to this. But if you think about real life, it's not like that at all. I mean, in real life, things are much more nuanced and complex,
Video examples
How to make your writing...
So what are some techniques you can use to achieve this in your own writing? Limit the point of view. Instead of an omniscient narrator who can see and relay everything that happens, tell the story from the perspective of the characters. They may start off knowing just as little as the audience does,
Video examples
First person vs. Second...
But that can be good for stories where a feeling of distance is important. A third person narrator can be either limited, meaning they stick close to one character’s thoughts and feelings, or they can be omniscient, able to flit between characters’ minds and give the reader more information.
Video examples
Virginia Postrel: The...
but also not so far above us that we can't identify with the person. In some sense, there has to be something like us. So as I say, in religious art, you know, God is not glamorous. God cannot be glamorous because God is omnipotent, omniscient -- too far above us.
Video examples
Lee Smolin: How science...
and those are defined with respect to some absolute, abstract notions of rights and justice, and so forth, which are independent of what else has happened in the society. Of who else there is, of the history and so forth. There is also an omniscient observer
Video examples
Can love and independence...
And the novel’s omniscient third-person narration allows Hurston to unleash her poetic prose on everything from birdsong, architecture, and fashion, to her characters’ deepest feelings and motivations. Perhaps more than any specific details,
Video examples
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein...
fields either work in one domain or the other but but this world seems to really get insights from both those kinds of approaches i think like you know the overarching lesson here is that um you know we are not omniscient
Video examples
Why should you read...
Ishmael becomes more of an omniscient guide for the reader than a traditional character. While Ahab obsesses over revenge and first mate Starbuck tries to reason with him, Ishmael takes us on his own quest for meaning
Video examples
Why democracy matters -...
stop that to stop pretending to be omniscient beings politicians also need to learn occasionally to say that certain things that voters want certain things that voters have been
Video examples
The legend of Annapurna,...
Lord Shiva— primordial destroyer of evil, slayer of demons, protector, and omniscient observer of the universe— was testing his wife’s patience.
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Chuck Palahniuk
American Novelist
Do you remember when you were 10 or 11 years old and you really thought your folks were the best? They were completely omniscient and you took their word for everything. And then you got older and you went through this hideous age when suddenly they were the devil, they were bullies, and they didn't know anything.
Quote examples
Paul Auster
American Author
When you pick up a book, everyone knows it's imaginary. You don't have to pretend it's not a book. We don't have to pretend that people don't write books. That omniscient third-person narration isn't the only way to do it. Once you're writing in the first person, then the narrator is a writer.
Quote examples
Margo Jefferson
American Critic
Even criticism is more interesting when the writer's authority does not only come through this omniscient narrator, but through questions, ambivalence, vulnerability. A mind questioning and on the move, not just settling down and declaring - that's one of the most interesting possibilities.
Quote examples
Edward Snowden
American Activist
Perhaps I am naive, but I believe that at this point in history, the greatest danger to our freedom and way of life comes from the reasonable fear of omniscient State powers kept in check by nothing more than policy documents.
Quote examples
Penn Jillette
American Entertainer
If I had to imagine omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent power in the universe that chose to make my mother suffer, I don't know how I would make that make sense in the universe.
Quote examples
Patanjali
Knowledge born of the finest discrimination takes us to the farthest shore. It is intuitive, omniscient, and beyond all divisions of time and space.
Quote examples
Ernest Mandel
Belgian Author
And you cannot have a socialist revolution commandeered from the top, ordered around by some omniscient leader or group of leaders.
Quote examples
Tryon Edwards
American Theologian
Mystery is but another name for ignorance; if we were omniscient, all would be perfectly plain!
Quote examples
Paul Sparks
American Actor
If I was able to be omniscient and look at my career objectively, I'd be very happy.
Quote examples
Little Richard
American Musician
God is omnipotent, He is omniscient, and He is ever present.
Quote examples
Chuck Palahniuk
American Novelist
Do you remember when you were 10 or 11 years old and you really thought your folks were the best? They were completely omniscient and you took their word for everything. And then you got older and you went through this hideous age when suddenly they were the devil, they were bullies, and they didn't know anything.
Quote examples
Paul Auster
American Author
When you pick up a book, everyone knows it's imaginary. You don't have to pretend it's not a book. We don't have to pretend that people don't write books. That omniscient third-person narration isn't the only way to do it. Once you're writing in the first person, then the narrator is a writer.
Quote examples
Margo Jefferson
American Critic
Even criticism is more interesting when the writer's authority does not only come through this omniscient narrator, but through questions, ambivalence, vulnerability. A mind questioning and on the move, not just settling down and declaring - that's one of the most interesting possibilities.
Quote examples
Edward Snowden
American Activist
Perhaps I am naive, but I believe that at this point in history, the greatest danger to our freedom and way of life comes from the reasonable fear of omniscient State powers kept in check by nothing more than policy documents.
Quote examples
Penn Jillette
American Entertainer
If I had to imagine omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent power in the universe that chose to make my mother suffer, I don't know how I would make that make sense in the universe.
Quote examples
Patanjali
Knowledge born of the finest discrimination takes us to the farthest shore. It is intuitive, omniscient, and beyond all divisions of time and space.
Quote examples
Ernest Mandel
Belgian Author
And you cannot have a socialist revolution commandeered from the top, ordered around by some omniscient leader or group of leaders.
Quote examples
Tryon Edwards
American Theologian
Mystery is but another name for ignorance; if we were omniscient, all would be perfectly plain!
Quote examples
Paul Sparks
American Actor
If I was able to be omniscient and look at my career objectively, I'd be very happy.
Quote examples
Little Richard
American Musician
God is omnipotent, He is omniscient, and He is ever present.
Example 1 of 10
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