Manichaeism noun. [manɪ'ki:ɪz(ǝ)m] Also Manicheism. E17.
[from late Latin Manichaeus (late Greek Manikhaios), from Mani, Manes (c 216-76), Persian founder of the system: see -ISM.]
A religious system with Christian, Gnostic, and pagan elements, founded in the 3rd cent. AD and widespread in the Roman Empire and Asia until the 5th (surviving until the 13th), based on a supposed primeval conflict between light and darkness, and representing Satan as coeternal with God; transf. dualism.

■ Manichae'istic adjective of, pertaining to, or of the nature of Manichaeism E20.

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