teleological
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of teleological
Explanation
Teleological means starting from the end and reasoning back, explaining things based on their end purpose. A teleological statement you've probably heard before is "everything happens for a reason." Teleological comes from the Greek roots telos "end" or "purpose" and -ology "study of." So teleology and teleological arguments try to explain the result (for example, the complexity and seeming order of the universe) by postulating a purpose. If you take a teleological view of humanity, you think human life has purpose and is moving toward some goal.
Vocabulary lists containing teleological
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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.
Politics are merely means; the bigger questions are teleological, and souls are central.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 8, 2026
Today, some might think that atomism and Aristotle’s teleological view have evolved into a theory of cells that resolves the acorn-oak tree identity problem.
From Textbooks • Jun. 15, 2022
Ross seems to acknowledge that, but he also protests that the “Wagner-to-Hitler” meme suggests a teleological progression that, while perhaps convenient, is dangerously simplistic.
From New York Times • Sep. 16, 2020
We committed what we call in history the teleological sin—that is, knowing how things turned out, you read history and write it backward as though it was inevitable.
From Slate • Mar. 16, 2020
Aristotle thus does not think of the natural movement of the elements as movement through space; he sees it in teleological terms as the realization of potential.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
