great filter
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.27 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A barrier which prevents intelligent life from developing to a level where it can be detected across interstellar distances.
name
The hypothesis that such a barrier exists.
Example Sentences
- "Well, maybe that means that there is — the term, I think it’s from the economist Robin Hanson — that there’s a great filter. That basically, it’s so hard to become a multiplanetary species that even though life is everywhere, every species gets stuck somewhere around where we are: Achieving some things, and then never getting off our initial planet."
- "While there are plenty of potential explanations and counterarguments for the Fermi paradox, one that has grabbed a lot of attention is known as the Great Filter - the idea that there is some sort of filter that prevents a civilization from becoming advanced enough to traverse the galaxy."
Etymology
Inflected Forms
the Great Filter (canonical)