phenomenon
Listen:Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
phenomenon/fəˈnɒmɪnən/
▶noun (pl. phenomena)
- 1 a fact or situation that is observed to exist or happen, especially one whose cause is in question.
- 2 Philosophy the object of a person's perception.
- 3 a remarkable person or thing.
– origin C16: via late L. from Gk phainomenon ‘thing appearing to view’, based on phainein ‘to show’.
usage: The word phenomenon comes from Greek, and its plural form is phenomena. In standard English it is a mistake to treat phenomena as if it were a singular form.
'phenomenon' also found in these Oxford entries:
amplitude
- aurora
- backdraught
- bilocation
- blue
- butterfly effect
- caloric
- cause
- complementation
- concomitant
- control
- cycle
- diachronism
- diagnosis
- diagnostic
- dilatancy
- discover
- dominance
- effect
- entrain
- epidemic
- epiphenomenon
- fury
- glossolalia
- hysteresis
- law
- law of nature
- magnetism
- meteor
- myth
- naturalize
- noise
- period
- phenology
- phenom
- phenomena
- prehistory
- pupil
- reductionism
- reflection
- refraction
- St Elmo's fire
- spectrum
- suppress
- tidal wave
- wave
