teleology
/ˌtɛliˈɑləd͡ʒi/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.90 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
5
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The study of the design or final purpose of natural occurrences, that is, of such occurrences being the result of intention instead of prior causes.
Uncountable
noun
The study of the design or final purpose of natural occurrences, that is, of such occurrences being the result of intention instead of prior causes.
Uncountable
noun
The belief or theory that a natural occurrence is the result of divine design or intention rather than the laws of nature or science; theoteleology; (countable) a particular belief or theory of this sort.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The received intellectual tradition has it that, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, revolutionary philosophers began to curtail and reject the teleology of the medieval and scholastic Aristotelians, abandoning final causes in favor of a purely mechanistic model of the Universe."
- "Their proposed explanation at the time was riddled with teleology."
- "In short, what every student of biology knows – that within nature there is a teleology having to do with the survival of the species which underpins the distinction between the two sexes and produces between them a natural affinity for one another – no surgeon who knows what is good for him may now say."
Etymology
Partly borrowed from French téléologie and from German Teleologie + English -logy (suffix denoting a branch of learning or study of a particular subject). Téléologie and Teleologie are both derived from Late Latin teleologia, from Ancient Greek τέλεος (téleos) (the genitive singular of τέλος (télos, “final cause, purpose”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to turn end-over-end; to revolve around, hence, to dwell, sojourn”)) + Latin -logia (suffix denoting the logical discourse or study of a subject) (from Ancient Greek -λογῐ́ᾱ (-logĭ́ā, suffix denoting a branch of learning or study of a particular subject), from λόγος (lógos, “that which is said or thought; subject matter”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to collect, gather”)) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns)). By surface analysis, teleo- (prefix meaning ‘end, goal, purpose’) + -logy.
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌtɛliˈɑləd͡ʒi/
- British English: /ˌtiːliˈɒləd͡ʒi/