Foucault
Americannoun
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Jean Bernard Léon 1819–68, French physicist.
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Michel 1926–84, French philosopher.
noun
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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)
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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.
His college, however, was filled with such famous authors as Michel Foucault, John Barth, Donald Barthelme and J.M.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 15, 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
The show takes its title from a book by the French philosopher Michel Foucault, who describes the emergence of a discourse about something that is being societally suppressed.
From New York Times • Mar. 16, 2023
Foucault also explained that "Truth is linked in a circular relation with systems of power which produce and sustain it."
From Salon • Feb. 7, 2023
The period between the late eighteenth and the mid-nineteenth centuries, wrote Michel Foucault, saw “the disappearance of torture as a public spectacle” and the gradual phasing out of corporal punishments.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
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.
