neophyte
Pronunciation
  • (America) IPA: /ˈni.əˌfaɪt/
Noun

neophyte (plural neophytes)

  1. A beginner; a person who is new to a subject, skill, or belief.
    Synonyms: beginner, newbie, newcomer, starter
    • 1927-29, Mahatma Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xvii ↗:
      A convert's enthusiasm for his new religion is greater than that of a person who is born in it. Vegetarianism was then a new cult in England, and likewise for me, because, as we have seen, I had gone there a convinced meat-eater, and was intellectually converted to vegetarianism later. Full of the neophyte's zeal for vegetarianism, I decided to start a vegetarian club in my locality, Bayswater. I invited Sir Edwin Arnold, who lived there, to be Vice-President. Dr. Oldfield who was Editor of the The Vegetarian became President. I myself became the Secretary. The club went well for a while, but came to an end in the course of a few months. For I left the locality, according to my custom of moving from place to place periodically. But this brief and modest experience gave me some little training in organizing and conducting institutions.
  2. A novice (recent convert); a new convert or proselyte; a new monk.
    Synonyms: novice
  3. (Christianity) A name given by the early Christians, and still given by the Roman Catholics, to those who have recently embraced the Christian faith, and been admitted to baptism, especially those converts from heathenism or Judaism.
    Synonyms: catechumen
  4. (botany) A plant species recently introduced to an area (in contrast to archaeophyte, a long-established introduced species).
    Antonyms: archaeophyte
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • German: Neophyt
  • Spanish: planta neófita



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