ˌavə̇ˈseˌnizəm noun
( -s )
Usage: usually capitalized
Etymology: Avicenna + English -ism
: the doctrines of the philosopher Avicenna who taught a theory of emanation and a doctrine widely accepted in the middle ages that universals exist in rebus as the general characters of particulars but ante res only in the mind of God and post res only as abstractions in the human mind