agnostic
n. countablen. not having a strong opinion on a topic, or believing that something cannot be known for sure. In technology, it describes software that works with any system or device.
n. uncommitted to a particular belief or view, originally regarding the existence of a deity. In computing contexts, it describes systems or software designed to be interoperable across various platforms without modification.
I am completely agnostic about where we go for dinner tonight.
The developers built a cloud-agnostic application so the company wouldn't be locked into a single hosting provider.
While he remained fiercely partisan on economic policy, he was surprisingly agnostic on social issues, preferring to let local municipalities dictate their own regulations.
Coined by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1870. Either from Ancient Greek ἄγνωστος (ágnōstos, “ignorant, not knowing”), or from a- + Gnostic, deriving (either way) from Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “not”) + γιγνώσκω (gignṓskō, “I know”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Frequently forms hyphenated compounds in technical jargon, such as 'platform-agnostic', and takes the prepositions 'about' or 'on' in general usage.
Last updated April 25, 2026