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.
Physicists, notably Eugene Wigner and John Wheeler, have speculated that consciousness, far from being a mere epiphenomenon of matter, is an essential component of reality.
From Scientific American • Sep. 27, 2021
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
Life, according to Crick, was an epiphenomenon of physics and chemistry — complex, yes, but still explicable in molecular terms.
From New York Times • Mar. 24, 2021
But if he once struck me as the center point of the show’s ills, he now strikes me as a side effect or epiphenomenon.
From Slate • Jul. 31, 2020
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.
