Word.ws English Dictionary

apriorism

apriorism noun: the idea that some knowledge of the physical world can be derived logically from general principles.

Noun

apriorism (countable and uncountable, plural apriorisms)

  1. The idea that some knowledge of the physical world can be derived logically from general principles.
    • The linguistic apriorism of Chomsky has stimulated some psychologists to search for nonlinguistic roots of language development.1982, Dan I Slobin, in Eric Wanner & Lila Gleitman, Language Acquisition, p. 128
    • What was needed for modern science to take shape was a renunciation of their bookish a priorism, with its Aristotelian notion that all things can be deduced by logical, abstract argument from (ultimately arbitrary) first principles.2006, Philip Ball, The Devil's Doctor, Arrow, published 2007, page 51

Forms of apriorism

pluralapriorisms
alternative forma priorism

Origin of apriorism

From a priori + -ism, after French apriorisme.

Questions about apriorism

What does apriorism mean?
Apriorism means the idea that some knowledge of the physical world can be derived logically from general principles.
What part of speech is apriorism?
Apriorism is a noun.
What is the plural of apriorism?
The plural of apriorism is apriorisms.

Words near apriorism in the dictionary

  1. aprimorations
  2. aprindine
  3. aprinocarsen
  4. apriori
  5. aprioricity
  6. apriorism
  7. apriorisms
  8. apriorist
  9. aprioristic
  10. aprioristically
  11. apriorists

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: apriorism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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