ontological
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ontological
First recorded in 1700–10; ontolog(y) ( def. ) + -ical ( def. )
Explanation
Things that have to do with the nature of being are ontological, like your ontological question about the Loch Ness Monster — do we have to have proof in order for something to exist? The study of being, is called ontology, so an ontological argument might investigate whether God — or people, for that matter — really exist. Are we real or just an imagined phenomenon? How do we know we aren't just characters in our creator's mind? These are heavy questions — philosophers including Aristotle, Parmenides, Descartes, Hume, Kant have all weighed in on the ontological question of “what can we be certain exists?”
Vocabulary lists containing ontological
The Fault in Our Stars
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Frankly in Love
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City of Bones
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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.
Writing for the majority, Justice Kavanaugh painstakingly selects his words to avoid the ontological question, as if touching it might break something fragile.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
But the ontological distinction was lost at the start: events don't exist, they happen.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 2, 2025
Whatever Ramona wanted in the car, she’s experiencing ontological buyer’s remorse in the now.
From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2025
The premise, and what’s done with it, paint “Laid” into a moral and ontological corner, which it addresses temporarily by literally opening a door.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2024
Every reality is capable of producing in the human mind a more or less adequate mental representation of itself: in this lies what we may call the potential or fundamental ontological truth of reality.
From Ontology or the Theory of Being by Peter Coffey
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.
