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uniformitarian

[yoo-nuh-fawr-mi-tair-ee-uhn]

adjective

  1. supporting, conforming to, or derived from a theory or doctrine about uniformity, especially on the subject of geology.

  2. Geology.,  of or relating to the thesis that processes that operated in the remote geological past are not different from those observed now.



noun

  1. a person who accepts or supports a uniformitarian theory.

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Other Word Forms

  • uniformitarianism noun
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Word History and Origins

Origin of uniformitarian1

First recorded in 1830–40; uniformit(y) + -arian
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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.

Hancock's plaint is that mainstream science is stuck in a uniformitarian model of slow, gradual change and so cannot accept a catastrophic explanation.

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The address began with a protest against the old uniformitarian view of geological changes as expressed by Playfair in his Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory.

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It is logical to use these proportions as prior probabilities by making a uniformitarian assumption that they were similar in the Mesozoic.

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It was slowly digesting Lyell's 'Principles of Geology,' in which the old cataclysmic theories were featly demolished, and the uniformitarian conception of a past gradually and insensibly merging into the present was conclusively established.

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The advent of modified uniformitarian principles all but banished the word catastrophe from science, and marked the birth of Geology as we know it now.

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uniformedˌuniˌformiˈtarian