epiphenomenon
Americannoun
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Pathology. a secondary or additional symptom or complication arising during the course of a disease.
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any secondary phenomenon.
noun
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a secondary or additional phenomenon; by-product
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pathol an unexpected or atypical symptom or occurrence during the course of a disease
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of epiphenomenon
First recorded in 1700–10; epi- + phenomenon
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I confess to a certain discomfort in arguing that conscious deliberation is strictly an epiphenomenon that plays no role in our decision-making.
From Salon • May 30, 2021
This toxic miasma of bad vibes—of masochistic pleasures—is not, in Lanier’s view, an epiphenomenon of social media, but rather the fuel on which it has been engineered to run.
From The New Yorker • Sep. 19, 2018
There is a lot of reading between the lines to be done with these letters, which allow only occasional glimpses of the life of which they were an epiphenomenon.
From Slate • Dec. 2, 2015
At first, these exciting physiological findings gave rise to a proliferation of theories that dreams were just an epiphenomenon, or side effect, of the brain patterns during slumber.
From Scientific American • Oct. 20, 2011
In this view, people are biological machines - consciousness is an interesting and valuable epiphenomenon, but mind is implemented in machinery which is not fundamentally different in information-processing capacity from computers.
From The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000 by Steele, Guy L.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
