phenomena

noun phe·nom·e·na \ fi-ˈnä-mə-nə , -ˌnä \

Updated on: 12 Apr 2018

Definition of phenomena

plural phenomenas

nonstandard

: phenomenon

Can phenomena be used as a singular?

Phenomena has been in occasional use as a singular since the early 18th century, as has the plural phenomenas. Our evidence shows that singular phenomena is primarily a speech form used by poets, critics, and professors, among others, but one that sometimes turns up in edited prose.

- Although it seemed like a fad a few years ago, Twitter has evolved into a phenomena with more than 200 million users …
- —Myron P. Medcalf

It is etymologically no more irregular than stamina and agenda, but it has nowhere near the frequency of use that they have, and while they are standard, phenomena is still rather borderline.

Recent Examples of phenomena from the Web

Fashion designers are always looking to the future, but the trend speaks to current cultural phenomena too, despite the fact that The Matrix was released in 1999.

— emilia petrarca, The Cut, "I Dressed Like I Was in The Matrix for a Week," 2 Apr. 2018
Hawking, who suffered from motor neurone disease, was known for his groundbreaking research into black holes and other phenomena.

— gregory katz, USA TODAY, "Stephen Hawking remembered by hundreds at Cambridge funeral," 31 Mar. 2018
Hawking, who suffered from motor neurone disease, was known for his groundbreaking research into black holes and other phenomena.

— Time, "Hundreds Line Streets for Funeral of Stephen Hawking," 31 Mar. 2018
Still, this was an observational study, which can only tell us about relationships between phenomena, and not whether one caused the other.

— julia belluz, Vox, "Lead isn’t just a big threat to kids. It’s also linked to heart deaths in adults.," 30 Mar. 2018
For a good while there, veteran Senators Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, and Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, were poster people for that rarest of phenomena: serious bipartisan policy-making.

— ed kilgore, Daily Intelligencer, "Alexander and Murray’s Bipartisan Obamacare Alliance Disintegrates," 26 Mar. 2018
The great advances in science generally involve discovering a link between phenomena that seemed hitherto conceptually unconnected.

— martin rees, Newsweek, "A Brief History of My Friend Stephen Hawking, the Man Who Changed Our Times," 14 Mar. 2018
New research shows that a single phenomena might be behind all eruptions on the sun, including solar flares.

— david grossman, Popular Mechanics, "New Model Shows Just How Strong Solar Flares Could Get," 8 Feb. 2018
Despite its accurate description of large scale phenomena such as a planet’s orbit or galaxy dynamics, general relativity breaks down at very short distances.

— lorenzo bianchi, Newsweek, "Was This Stephen Hawking's Theory of Everything?," 19 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'phenomena.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.