great chains of being
great chains of being is the plural of great chain of being.
Meaning of great chain of being
Noun
great chain of being (plural great chains of being)
- A hierarchical structure of all matter and life, descending from God through angels, humans, animals and plants to minerals, and thought in medieval times to have been decreed by God.
- Vaſt Chain of Being! which from God began, / Ethereal Eſſence, Spirit, Subſtance, Man, / Beaſt, Bird, Fiſh, Inſect! what no Eye can ſee, / No Glaſs can reach! from Infinite to Thee!1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle I, London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC, page 235
- Synonyms:
- Chain of Being
Noun capitalized: Great Chains of Being
Great Chains of Being
- plural of Great Chain of Being
- Fixed hierarchies and Great Chains of Being were not ideas native to North America.1986 February 15, Patricia Clark Smith, “A Fresh Wind in the Museum: The Sacred Hoop”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 39, page B7
Questions about great chains of being
- What is great chains of being the plural of?
- Great chains of being is the plural of great chain of being.
- What part of speech is great chains of being?
- Great chains of being is a noun.
Words near great chains of being in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: great chains of being (page history and authors); Great Chains of Being (page history and authors); great chain of being (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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