immanence

American  

[im-uh-nuhns] / ˈɪm ə nəns /

Rarely immanency

noun

1. the state of being inherent or exclusively existing within something.

   “Place” is a fundamental concept; it has evaded theorizing because of its immanence and omnipresence.

2. Theology.  the state or quality of a Deity exclusively existing within the universe, time, etc..

   A horizontal axis stretches from God’s immanence in the world, on the left, to transcendence of it, on the right.

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Other Word Forms

• nonimmanence noun
• nonimmanency noun

Etymology

Origin of immanence

imman(ent) ( def. ) + -ence ( def. )

Compare meaning

How does immanence compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• immanence vs. transcendence

Example Sentences

How, as a painter, do you convey such an acute awareness of life’s mysterious immanence, even in moments of transition?

From Washington Post

The word that comes to mind is immanence – a term I learned as a philosophy undergraduate and which I did not remotely understand until I began to have these experiences of being alone in nature.

From The Guardian

Joyce’s presence in this city is already radically overdetermined, overbearing in its intimacy and immanence.

From The Guardian

This must have been the type of experience sought by Jesus during 40 days of wandering and fasting in the desert: a sense of God’s immanence, which only seems revealed in the absence of distraction.

From Washington Post

Ideas of immanence, the nostalgia of the body.

From New York Times