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xenomorphosis

xenomorphosis noun: a form of cognitive dissonance produced by stimulation that pulls in two opposing directions, such as simultaneous attraction and revulsion.

Noun

xenomorphosis (uncountable)

  1. (film studies) A form of cognitive dissonance produced by stimulation that pulls in two opposing directions, such as simultaneous attraction and revulsion.
    • Xenomorphosis occurs when the empirical elements of projected sound and image conspire to negate and destroy, through the retina, neuro-pathways designed to domesticate and tranquilize.1997, Millennium Film Journal, numbers 30-36, page 52
    • Nanofiction is thus a site of our becoming-alien to ourselves—a site of xenomorphosis, or what Ann Weinstone has called the “avatar body.”2008, Colin Milburn, Nanovision: Engineering the Future

Origin of xenomorphosis

From xeno- + morphosis, coined by American filmmaker and author Nick Zedd (born 1958).

Questions about xenomorphosis

What does xenomorphosis mean?
Xenomorphosis means a form of cognitive dissonance produced by stimulation that pulls in two opposing directions, such as simultaneous attraction and revulsion.
What part of speech is xenomorphosis?
Xenomorphosis is a noun.

Words near xenomorphosis in the dictionary

  1. xenomorph
  2. xenomorphic
  3. xenomorphism
  4. xenomorphisms
  5. xenomorphology
  6. xenomorphosis
  7. xenomorphous
  8. xenomorphously
  9. xenomorphs
  10. xenomythology
  11. xenon

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: xenomorphosis (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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