Most philosophers are atheist.

[Jackalope]

Really?  So, deists are theists now?   Or are they atheists?

IOW, could it be that respondents who answered "other" did so because they *do* know what words mean, and both atheist and theist fail to capture the nuance of their position?

Deism is a form of theism, yes. "Theism" just means belief in a god/deity which includes deism. If you're not an atheist, you're a theist. "Atheist" means "non-theist" and "theist" and "non-theist" is a true dichotomy that covers everything. Since the answer "neither" to any "x or non-x" dichotomy doesn't make logical sense. True dichotomies are any x/non-x. Which is what theism/atheism is. Because it's identical to theism/non-theism. You can't logically answer with "neither" in this case. False dichotomies are dichotomies in which you can logically answer with "neither".

People often use "theism" to refer to specifically non-deistic theism, to refer to specifically a belief in a personal god, but on another level deism is a sub category of theism because "theism" just means belief in any god, including impersonal deistic gods. The fact "deism" is used at all is simply so it's easier to specify that you mean specifically impersonal non-interventionist theism.

And no it's because they don't know what the words mean. If you're not a non-theist you're a theist. And atheism is non-theism. "a-theism"= "without theism". Which includes without deism.

Dude, drop the pedantry and grab a dictionary because you're flat fucking wrong here. You're cherry picking a single definition, the most broad and least able to represent nuance and saying it's THE definition. The other definition I am aware of makes a clear distinction between between deism and theism - and if a deist is present with the options of Theist/atheist/other, it's not going to be that overly broad definition you have in mind that they're thinking of.

So no, it is not a result of them not knowing what wordsean, it's a matter of you failing to recognize that words have not only one relavent meaning, and it's not your choice which one anyone else applies in this spot.

This is in fact a mirror image of a bad argument that some theists use to insist atheism means only a denial of God's existence. It's no less bad when one of us uses it.