Hegel

American  

[hey-guhl] / ˈheɪ gəl /

noun

1. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich 1770–1831, German philosopher.

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Hegel British  

/ hɪˈɡeɪlɪən, ˈheɪɡəl, heɪˈɡiː- /

noun

1. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (ɡeˈɔrk ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈfriːdrɪç). 1770–1831, German philosopher, who created a fundamentally influential system of thought. His view of man's mind as the highest expression of the Absolute is expounded in The Phenomenology of Mind (1807). He developed his concept of dialectic, in which the contradiction between a proposition (thesis) and its antithesis is resolved at a higher level of truth (synthesis), in Science of Logic (1812–16)

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Other Word Forms

• Hegelianism
  noun
• Hegelian
  adjective

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Hegel

Hegel was a metaphysician whose insistence that Geist, or spirit, pervades the historical process and moves it to some grand culmination is difficult to distinguish from New Age mysticism, and hence charlatanism.

From Salon ● Mar. 28, 2026

Plato and Hegel, in case you were wondering.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026

On his desk were books by Oscar Wilde and Hegel.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2024

“North Korea in my opinion is really stepping up their game,” said Hegel, who works for U.S. firm SentinelOne.

From Reuters ● Jul. 20, 2023

“Nobody can take Hegel seriously. Have you read him closely? He’s funny, very funny. But Hume and Voltaire and Locke felt the same way about Africa,” Odenigbo said.

From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie