physis
Americannoun
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the principle of growth or change in nature.
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nature as the source of growth or change.
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something that grows, becomes, or develops.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of physis
< Greek phýsis origin, natural form of a thing; akin to phŷlon race ( see phylon)
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.
In environmental terms, Thoreau, who saw the landscape as imbued with an essential wildness that could be heedlessly destroyed, embodies physis.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Beneath the entangling personal motives, the debate is one of the oldest in the Western philosophical tradition, between nomos and physis.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
A key part of philosophy, as that discipline was inherited from Aristotle and taught in the universities, was the study of nature—‘nature’ coming from the Latin word natura, for which the Greek equivalent is physis.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
It is not first in this transcendental element, however, that the poet's personality is revealed: the poetry of a great poet must be characteristic in its very physis, in its very material.
From ?mile Verhaeren by Zweig, Stefan
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.
