individuation

[in-duh-vij-oo-ey-shuh n]

See more synonyms for individuation on Thesaurus.com

noun

the act of individuating.
state of being individuated; individual existence; individuality.
Philosophy. the determination or contraction of a general nature to an individual mode of existence; development of the individual from the general.

Origin of individuation

First recorded in 1620–30; individuate + -ion

Related formsde·in·di·vid·u·a·tion, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for individuation

interpretation, explanation, solution, rationale, answer, translation, comment, elucidation, rendering, signification, analogue, clarification, fixing, gloss, cue, exposition, commentary, drift, clue, determination

Examples from the Web for individuation

Historical Examples of individuation

Symmetry is here what metaphysicians call a principle of individuation.
The Sense of Beauty
George Santayana
The principle of individuation follows, of course, from this.
Leibniz's New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding
John Dewey
It is therefore easy to discover the principle of individuation.
Leibniz's New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding
John Dewey
Individuation,—is the unity of a thing with itself, or that whereby a thing is what it is.
The Book of Curiosities
I. Platts
They merely refuse to confuse it with the fact of individuation.
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
Emile Durkheim

British Dictionary definitions for individuation

individuation

noun

the act or process of individuating
(in the psychology of Jung) the process by which the wholeness of the individual is established through the integration of consciousness and the collective unconscious
zoology the development of separate but mutually interdependent units, as in the development of zooids forming a colony

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for individuation

1620s, from Medieval Latin individuationem, noun of action from individuare, from individuus (see individual). Psychological sense is from 1909.

individuation in Medicine

individuation

[ĭn′də-vĭj′ōō-ā′shən]

The act or process of becoming distinct or individual, especially the process by which social individuals become differentiated one from the other.
In Jungian psychology, gradual integration and unification of the self through the resolution of successive layers of psychological conflict.
The formation of distinct organs or structures through the interaction of adjacent tissues in an embryo.