Philosophical

//ˌfɪl.əˈsɒf.ɪ.kl̩// adj

adj ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of, or pertaining to, philosophy.

    "“For most of human history, the question of whether or not life exists elsewhere has belonged only within the philosophical realm,” said Howard Chen, study author and Ph.D candidate at Northwestern University."

  2. 2
    Rational; analytic or critically minded; thoughtful.

    "His richly philosophical intellect was not at any time affected by unrealities."

  3. 3
    Detached, calm, stoic.

    "She bore the desertion with philosophical indifference."

Adjective
  1. 1
    characterized by the attitude of a philosopher; meeting trouble with level-headed detachment wordnet
  2. 2
    of or relating to philosophy or philosophers wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
philosophicunemotionalabstractacceptingarmed with patiencebalanced

Example

More examples

"Everyone seems to have a bone to pick with someone, but only a few people can be philosophical about it."

Etymology

From philosophy + -ical, from Ancient Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophía, “love of knowledge, scientific learning”). Displaced native Old English ūþwitlīċ.

Related phrases

doctrine of philosophical necessityphilosophical anarchismphilosophical anarchistphilosophical furnacephilosophical materialismphilosophical methodphilosophical sinphilosophical woolphilosophical zombiepsycho-socio-philosophicalscientifico-philosophicalwax philosophical

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.