philosophy
noun
Simple meaning
The study of big questions about life, knowledge, and what is real
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fuhlahsuhfeeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
fəˈlɑsəfi
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
uncountable
An academic discipline that seeks truth through reasoning rather than empiricism, often attempting to provide explanations relating to general concepts such as existence and rationality.
countable
A view or outlook regarding fundamental principles underlying some domain.
countable
A comprehensive system of belief.
countable
A general principle (usually moral).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An academic discipline that seeks truth through reasoning rather than empiricism, often attempting to provide explanations relating to general concepts such as existence and rationality.
Used this way, philosophy is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in academic writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Academic writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use philosophy
- “Philosophy is often divided into five major branches: logic, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and aesthetics.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A specialist in philosophy.
Related to a belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by some group or school.
In a philosophic manner.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The academic department responsible for teaching philosophy.
A doctorate awarded for original contributions to knowledge.
The doctrine that knowledge derives from experience.
A 20th-century philosophical movement chiefly in Europe.
A 20th-century philosophical movement chiefly in Europe.
The branch of philosophy concerned with the law and the principles that lead courts to make the decisions they do.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A doctrine accepted by adherents to a philosophy.
A doctrine accepted by adherents to a philosophy.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- doctoratenoun
- theologynoun
- dissertationnoun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.