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organon

American  
[awr-guh-non] / ˈɔr gəˌnɒn /

noun

  • organa,
    plural
  • organons
    plural
  1. an instrument of thought or knowledge.

  2. Philosophy. a system of rules or principles of demonstration or investigation.


organon British  
/ ˈɔːɡəˌnɒn /

noun

  1. a system of logical or scientific rules, esp that of Aristotle

  2. archaic a sense organ, regarded as an instrument for acquiring knowledge

"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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of organon

First recorded in 1580–90; from Greek órganon; see organ

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.

See Examples For:

Where Thomas Aquinas, in his thirteenth century “Summa Theologica,” wished to systematize all of Christian doctrine, Lem wrote a secular organon of human civilization’s entanglement with machines.

From The New Yorker Jan. 6, 2019

He worked out the first "organon," or manual of logical thought.

From Time Magazine Archive

They had of course inherited the technology from Ktesibios's hydraulis organ - and the name organum likewise comes from the Greek organon, meaning instrument or tool.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

It is not an organon for extending, but a discipline for limiting!

From A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga by William Walker Atkinson

Thus, for example, geometry has space as problem, and the ground of existence in space as organon.

From The World As Will And Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer

Winchester’s Troper of two-voice organa manuscripts and its mighty four- hundred-voice pipe organ were the work of Anglo-Saxon Christians.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

A commentator on Aristotle, writing in the 4th century A.D., calls certain instruments used for fusion and calcination "chuika organa," that is, instruments for melting and pouring.

From The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry by M. M. Pattison Muir

Or clumsy chilblain'd judgment; that with oath Magnificates his merit; and beapawls The conscious time, with humorous foam and brawls, As if his organons of sense would crack The sinews of my patience.

From The Poetaster by Ben Jonson

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