Foucault
Americannoun
-
Jean Bernard Léon 1819–68, French physicist.
-
Michel 1926–84, French philosopher.
noun
-
Jean Bernard Léon (ʒɑ̃ bɛrnar leɔ̃). 1819–68, French physicist. He determined the velocity of light and proved that light travels more slowly in water than in air (1850). He demonstrated by means of the pendulum named after him the rotation of the earth on its axis (1851) and invented the gyroscope (1852)
-
Michel . 1926–84, French philosopher and historian of ideas. His publications include Histoire de la folie (1961) and Les Mots et les choses (1966)
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.
Nothing sets Mr. Saad off more than postmodernism, “a dreadful idea” that came into vogue in the 1960s thanks to a trio of Frenchman, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan and Michel Foucault.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
To our shame, even nonbelievers such as Gore Vidal and Michel Foucault understood this.Foucault once said, “We are creating a hermaphrodism — a false species.”
From Washington Times ● Jun. 11, 2023
He was anti-theory at a time when graduate students in the arts and humanities could not afford to be oblivious of Foucault, Derrida and the army of faddish post-modernists.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 14, 2023
In all likelihood, he encountered the work of Foucault during his studies there.
From Salon ● Feb. 7, 2023
She left behind an autobiography, which Michel Foucault discovered in the archives of the French Department of Public Hygiene.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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.
