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
A new metaphysic of distances and destinations has taken over the world.
From Time Magazine Archive
Doubtless, if by science be meant an absolutely adequate knowledge of the object, such as mathematics affords, metaphysic cannot pretend to such knowledge; but we have here only a question of degree.
From The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, October 1879 by Various
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.
