Word.ws English Dictionary

organum

UK/ˈɔː.ɡə.nəm/US/ˈɔɹ.ɡə.nəm/

organum noun: a type of medieval polyphony which builds upon an existing plainsong.

Noun

organum (countable and uncountable, plural organums or organa)

  1. A type of medieval polyphony which builds upon an existing plainsong.
  2. (archaic) A method by which philosophical or scientific investigation may be conducted.
    • He [Francis Bacon] has given us an organum of a different origin and construction from that of Aristotle[…]1794, George Adams, Lectures on natural and experimental philosophy
    • Another important circumstance respecting our transcendental esthetics is, that it does not insinuate itself merely as a plausible hypothesis, but is as certain and indubitable as we can require any theory to be in order to serve as an organum.1823, Thomas Wirgman, An Entirely New, Complete and Permanent Science of Philosophy

Forms of organum

pluralorganums
pluralorgana

Origin of organum

Borrowed from Latin organum, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ὄργανον (órganon, “organ, instrument, tool”). Doublet of organ, organon, and orgue.

Questions about organum

What does organum mean?
Organum means a type of medieval polyphony which builds upon an existing plainsong.
What part of speech is organum?
Organum is a noun.
How do you pronounce organum?
Organum is pronounced /ˈɔː.ɡə.nəm/ (UK).
What is the plural of organum?
The plural of organum is organums.

Words near organum in the dictionary

  1. organs-on-a-chip
  2. organs-on-chips
  3. organular
  4. organule
  5. organules
  6. organum
  7. organum triplum
  8. organums
  9. organwide
  10. organy
  11. organyl

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: organum (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: “organum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/organum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.