Word of the Day:
phenomenon
What It Means
A thing or being, event or process, perceptible through senses; or a fact or occurrence thereof.
A knowable thing or event (e.g. by inference, especially in science).
A kind or type of phenomenon (sense 1 or 2).
A volcanic eruption is an impressive phenomenon.
Phenomenon in Context
“Not much later—perhaps only two or three weeks later he has discovered meaning in them; he knows that they say "The cat sat on the hat." How this happens no one really knows, despite the efforts of philosophers and psychologists over two and a half millennia to study the phenomenon. [...] Indeed...”
Did You Know?
From Late Latin phaenomenon (“appearance”), from Ancient Greek φαινόμενον (phainómenon, “thing appearing to view”), neuter present middle participle of φαίνω (phaínō, “I show”).
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: phenomenon (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the word and reformatted its meaning, examples and origin.
Cite this entry: “phenomenon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/phenomenon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
