Teleology
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The study of the purpose or design of natural occurrences. countable, uncountable
"The received intellectual tradition has it that, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, revolutionary philosophers began to curtail and reject the teleology of the medieval and scholastic Aristotelians, abandoning final causes in favor of a purely mechanistic model of the Universe."
- 2 (philosophy) a doctrine explaining phenomena by their ends or purposes wordnet
- 3 An instance of such a design or purpose, usually in natural phenomena. broadly, countable, uncountable
"In short, what every student of biology knows – that within nature there is a teleology having to do with the survival of the species which underpins the distinction between the two sexes and produces between them a natural affinity for one another – no surgeon who knows what is good for him may now say."
- 4 The use of a purpose or design rather than the laws of nature to explain an occurrence. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"There are no such things as functions, no purposes, no teleology at all in the world."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek τέλος (télos, “purpose”), genitive τέλεος (téleos), and λόγος (lógos, “word, speech, discourse”).
Related phrases
More for "teleology"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.