phenomenon

• phaenomenon, phænomenon, phainomenon (archaic)
• phœnomenon (hypercorrect, obsolete)

From Late Latin phaenomenon (“appearance”), from Ancient Greek φαινόμενον (phainómenon, “thing appearing to view”), neuter present middle participle of φαίνω (phaínō, “I show”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fəˈnɒm.ɪ.nən/, /fɪ-/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

  • Audio (London):

    (file)

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /fəˈnɑ.məˌnɑn/, /-nən/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /fəˈnɔm.ə.nɔn/, /-nən/
• Rhymes: -ɒmənɒn
• Hyphenation: phe‧no‧me‧non

phenomenon (plural phenomena or (proscribed) phenomenons or phenomenon)

1. A thing or being, event or process, perceptible through senses; or a fact or occurrence thereof.
   • 1873, Jules Verne, chapter I, in [anonymous], transl., Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas; […], James R. Osgood edition, Boston, Mass.: Geo[rge] M[urray] Smith & Co., →OCLC, part I, page 3:

     The year 1866 was signalised by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and inexplicable phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten.

   • 1900, Andrew Lang, chapter 1, in The Making of Religion:

     The Indians, making a hasty inference from a trivial phenomenon, arrived unawares at a probably correct conclusion.

   • 1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of Chicago, →DOI, page 420:

     In the sense in which we are using the term, the intellectuals are in fact a fairly new phenomenon of history.

   • 2007 November 7, “Ask the Experts: Hurricanes”, in USA Today‎^[1], archived from the original on 4 February 2012, retrieved 16 Jan. 2009:

     It is important to note the differences between hurricanes and earthquakes — hurricanes are a meteorological phenomenon while earthquakes are geological. Both hurricanes and earthquakes can produce damage by flooding of coastal areas, but a hurricane's storm surge and a tsunami associated with an earthquake are entirely different phenomena.

2. (by extension) A knowable thing or event (e.g. by inference, especially in science).

   An electromagnetic phenomenon.

3. A kind or type of phenomenon (sense 1 or 2).

   A volcanic eruption is an impressive phenomenon.

4. Appearance; a perceptible aspect of something that is mutable.
   • 1662, Thomas Salusbury, transl., Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World, First Day:

     I verily believe that in the Moon there are no rains, for if Clouds should gather in any part thereof, as they do about the Earth, they would thereupon hide from our sight some of those things, which we with the Telescope behold in the Moon, and in a word, would some way or other change its Phœnomenon.

5. A fact or event considered very unusual, curious, or astonishing by those who witness it.
   • 1816, [Walter Scott], chapter XVIII, in The Antiquary. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

     The phenomenon of a huge blazing fire, upon the opposite bank of the glen, again presented itself to the eye of the watchman. . . . He resolved to examine more nearly the object of his wonder.

   • 1972, Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 25:

     Not much later—perhaps only two or three weeks later he has discovered meaning in them; he knows that they say "The cat sat on the hat." How this happens no one really knows, despite the efforts of philosophers and psychologists over two and a half millennia to study the phenomenon. [...] Indeed, this discovery of meaning in symbols may be the most astounding intellectual feat that any human being ever performs—and most humans perform it before they are seven years old!

6. A wonderful or very remarkable person or thing.
   • 1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 23, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC:

     "This, sir," said Mr Vincent Crummles, bringing the maiden forward, "this is the infant phenomenon—Miss Ninetta Crummles."

   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, The Phantom Rickshaw:

     But, all the same, you're a phenomenon, and as queer a phenomenon as you are a blackguard.

7. (philosophy, chiefly Kantian idealism) An experienced object whose constitution reflects the order and conceptual structure imposed upon it by the human mind (especially by the powers of perception and understanding).
   • 1900, S. Tolver Preston, “Comparison of Some Views of Spencer and Kant”, in Mind, volume 9, number 34, page 234:

     Every "phenomenon" must be, at any rate, partly subjective or dependent on the subject.

   • 1912, Roy Wood Sellars, “Is There a Cognitive Relation?”, in The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, volume 9, number 9, page 232:

     The Kantian phenomenon is the real as we are compelled to think it.

• The most common modern spelling of this term is phenomenon. Of the alternative forms listed above, phaenomenon and phænomenon are etymologically consistent, retaining the αι diphthong from the Ancient Greek etymon φαινόμενον (phainómenon) in its Latinized ae form; both are now archaic. The form phainomenon is a direct transliteration of the Ancient Greek and is likewise archaic. The form spelled with œ has no etymological basis. All these alternative spellings are pronounced identically with phenomenon.
• The most common plural form is the classical phenomena; the Anglicized phenomenons is also sometimes used. The plural form phenomena is frequently used in the singular, and the singular form is sometimes used in the plural. Arising from this nonstandard use, the double plurals phenomenas and phenomenae, as well as a form employing the greengrocer’s apostrophe — phenomena’s — are also seen.

• (observable fact or occurrence): event
• (unusual, curious, or astonishing fact or event): marvel, miracle, oddity, wonder, legend
• (wonderful person or thing): marvel, miracle, phenom, prodigy, wonder, legend

• (antonym(s) of “philosophy: experienced object structured by the mind”): noumenon, thing-in-itself

• “phenomenon”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “phenomenon”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.