metaphysic
Americannoun
adjective
noun
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the system of first principles and assumptions underlying an enquiry or philosophical theory
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an obsolete word for metaphysician
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of metaphysic
1350–1400; Middle English metaphisik < Medieval Latin metaphysica (neuter plural); see metaphysics
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.
We shouldn’t mistake Mason’s decision for an evasion so much as a decision about the kind of doctor he insists on trying to be and the kind of metaphysic he hopes his work will embody.
From New York Times ● Sep. 12, 2018
Laing finds an emotional correlation to this metaphysic both in the physical geography of New York and in the work of Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, Henry Darger and David Wojnarowicz.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 8, 2017
What I call the biblical metaphysic, what the Bible gives us of images of virtue that relies on meekness that is based on love rather than courage.
From Washington Post ● May 1, 2015
Each 747 takes on some unsettling metaphysic of Jonah-eating whale, or Moby Dick.
From Time Magazine Archive
Misconception of Dreams.—In the dream, mankind, in epochs of crude primitive civilization, thought they were introduced to a second, substantial world: here we have the source of all metaphysic.
From Human, All Too Human A Book for Free Spirits by Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm
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.
