conatuses

Noun

conatus (plural conatuses or conatus)

1. An effort, an endeavour, a striving.
   1. Such a striving effort that is a life force.
      • Creationists commonly doctor the Second Law of Thermodynamics to claim that biological evolution, an increase in order over time, is physically impossible. The part of the law they omit is “in a closed system.” Organisms are open systems: they capture energy from the sun, food, or ocean vents to...2018, Steven Pinker, “Chapter 2: Entro, Evo, Info”, in Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Penguin, →ISBN
2. A force or impulse.
   • [E]ach part so moved does by that motion exert a conatus of protruding and displacing all the adjacent Particles.1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia

   Synonyms:

   nisus