metaphysics

noun

meta·​phys·​ics ˌme-tə-ˈfi-ziks 

plural in form but singular in construction

1

a(1)

: a division of philosophy that is concerned with the fundamental nature of reality and being and that includes ontology, cosmology, and often epistemology

metaphysics … analyzes the generic traits manifested by existences of any kind

—J. H. Randall

(2)

: ontology sense 2

b

: abstract philosophical studies : a study of what is outside objective experience

steered philosophy away from metaphysics and toward the disciplines of natural science and linguistics

—Time

2

: metaphysic sense 2

Did you know?

Just as physics deals with the laws that govern the physical world (such as those of gravity or the properties of waves), metaphysics describes what is beyond physics—the nature and origin of reality itself, the immortal soul, and the existence of a supreme being. Opinions about these metaphysical topics vary widely, since what's being discussed can't be observed or measured or even truly known to exist. So most metaphysical questions are still as far from a final answer as they were when Plato and Aristotle were asking them.

Examples of metaphysics in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Ninth House The ninth house is the philosophical house, ruling over religion, metaphysics, and higher education. —Narayana Montúfar, Women's Health, 14 Aug. 2023

But Nolan misses the deeper metaphysics undergirding the drama. —WIRED, 24 July 2023

Like Wolfe, who shaped the metaphysics of Book of the New Sun around his own Catholic views, Palmer would incorporate her own hodgepodge of theological and intellectual influences—a divine plan shaped by a historian's view of how society actually progresses. —Gregory Barber, Wired, 10 Feb. 2022

At eighteen, Leibniz had decided that the highest effort of philosophy would be to construct a language of metaphysics that could perfect the extension of human thought with no less precision or glory than the telescope had perfected the extension of the human eye. —Merve Emre, The New York Review of Books, 16 Jan. 2020

The Gnomons devote themselves equally to metaphysics and to the pointless disputes and exacerbations of day-to-day operations. —Scott Bradfield, The New Republic, 7 Apr. 2023

The album isn’t all soothing Yoda metaphysics. —Jon Dolan, Rolling Stone, 15 Oct. 2021

Smith was a fascinating but mysterious figure -- a mystic who was part of the secret occultist society the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which borrowed ideas from Kabbalah and freemasonry for its own spiritual belief system centered on magic and metaphysics. —CNN, 12 May 2022

But even the most rarefied metaphysics at TSMC rest on a tangible substrate: silicon. —Virginia Heffernan, WIRED, 21 Mar. 2023

See More

Word History

Etymology

Medieval Latin Metaphysica, title of Aristotle's treatise on the subject, from Greek (ta) meta (ta) physika, literally, the (works) after the physical (works); from its position in his collected works

First Known Use

1569, in the meaning defined at sense 1a(1)

Kids Definition

metaphysics

noun

meta·​phys·​ics ˌmet-ə-ˈfiz-iks 

: the part of philosophy concerned with the ultimate causes and basic nature of things

Etymology

from Latin Metaphysica, title given to a work by Aristotle on the subject, from Greek (ta) meta (ta) physika, literally, "the (works) after the physical (works)"; so called because this section came after the section on physics and physical nature in a collection of Aristotle's collected writings