Word.ws English Dictionary

physiogeny

physiogeny noun: the study of the evolution of functions and vital activities by observing the supposed ontogenic recapitulation of that phylogeny.

Noun

physiogeny (usually uncountable, plural physiogenies)

  1. (historical, rare, usually, theory of recapitulation) The study of the evolution of functions and vital activities by observing the supposed ontogenic recapitulation of that phylogeny.
    • Es wird daher erst die Aufgabe einer zukünftigen Physiogenie sein, die Entwickelungsgeschichte der Functionen mit gleichem Eifer und Erfolge in Angriff zu nehmen, wie dies für die Entwickelungsgeschichte der Formen von der Morphogenie längst geschehen ist.1874, Ernst Haeckel, “Das Grundgesetz der organischen Entwickelung” (chapter I), in Anthropogenie; oder, Entwickelungsgeschichte des Menschen. Gemeinverständliche wissenschaftliche Vorträge über die...

Antonyms of physiogeny

Forms of physiogeny

pluralphysiogenies

Origin of physiogeny

Simplified learned borrowing from German Physiontogenie, itself from physio- + Ontogenie; equivalent to a reduction of physio- + ontogeny to physio- (“nature”) + -geny (“origin”). The simplification means that the term is also used to translate German Physiogenie, the distinction between Physiontogenie and Physiogenie not being made in English.

Questions about physiogeny

What does physiogeny mean?
Physiogeny means the study of the evolution of functions and vital activities by observing the supposed ontogenic recapitulation of that phylogeny.
What part of speech is physiogeny?
Physiogeny is a noun.
What is the plural of physiogeny?
The plural of physiogeny is physiogenies.

Words near physiogeny in the dictionary

  1. physiogenesis
  2. physiogenetic
  3. physiogenic
  4. physiogenies
  5. physiogenomic
  6. physiogeny
  7. physiogeographic
  8. physiogeographical
  9. physiogeography
  10. physiognomer
  11. physiognomers

Source and license

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