Word.ws English Dictionary

epiphenomena

Syllables: epi·phe·no·me·naUK/ˌɛpɪfəˈnɒmɪnə/US/ˌɛpəfəˈnɑmənə/

epiphenomena is the plural of epiphenomenon.

Meaning of epiphenomenon

Noun

epiphenomenon (plural epiphenomena or (nonstandard) epiphenomenons)

  1. An activity, process, or state that is the result of another; a by-product, a consequence.
    • Yet I would suggest that philosophical and even medical curiosity are only epiphenomenons of another condition that brought deafness to cultural attention.1997, Lennard J. Davis, “Universalizing Marginality: How Europe Became Deaf in the Eighteenth Century”, in Lennard J. Davis, editor, The Disability Studies Reader, New York, N.Y.; London: Routledge...
  2. A mental process or state that is an incidental by-product of physiological events in the brain or nervous system.
    • It is a necessary corollary of the view here advanced that in instinct as such consciousness is a mere epiphenomenon—a by-product, with no bearing whatever on the performance of the activity in so far as it is instinctive.1894, C[onwy] Lloyd Morgan, “Instinct and Intelligence”, in Havelock Ellis, editor, An Introduction to Comparative Psychology (The Contemporary Science Series), London: Walter Scott, […], →OCLC, page...
  3. A symptom that develops during the course of a disease that is not connected to the disease.
    • EPIPHÆNOMENA, […] Signs in Diſeaſes which appear afterwards.[1721, N[athan] Bailey, “EPIPHÆNOMENA”, in An Universal Etymological English Dictionary: […], London: […] E. Bell, J. Darby, […], →OCLC, column 2

Forms of epiphenomena

alternative form (obsolete)epiphænomena

Questions about epiphenomena

What is epiphenomena the plural of?
Epiphenomena is the plural of epiphenomenon.
How do you pronounce epiphenomena?
Epiphenomena is pronounced /ˌɛpɪfəˈnɒmɪnə/ (UK).

Words near epiphenomena in the dictionary

  1. epipharynx
  2. epipharynxes
  3. epiphase
  4. epiphases
  5. epiphatic
  6. epiphenomena
  7. epiphenomenal
  8. epiphenomenalism
  9. epiphenomenalisms
  10. epiphenomenalist
  11. epiphenomenalistic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: epiphenomena (page history and authors); epiphenomenon (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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Cite this entry: “epiphenomena.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/epiphenomena. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.