Apophenia
/æpəˈfiːni.ə/ noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The perception of or belief in connectedness among unrelated phenomena. countable, uncountable
"Apophenia, Win had declared it, after due consideration and in his careful way: the spontaneous perception of connections and meaningfulness in unrelated things. And had never, as far as Cayce knows, said another word about it."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Pareidolia is a type of apophenia."
Etymology
From German Apophänie, from Ancient Greek ἀποφαίνω (apophaínō, “to appear”), from ἀπο- (apo-) and φαίνω (phaínō, “appear”), coined by German psychiatrist Klaus Conrad in 1958.