Teleonomy

//ˌtɛliˈɒnəmi// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The quality of living organisms of seeming to be organized towards the attainment of an end. uncountable, usually

Synonyms

All synonyms
teleogenesis

Etymology

From teleo- + -nomy. Coined by biologist Colin Pittendrigh in 1958, who wanted to limit the much older term "teleology" to actions planned by an agent who can internally model alternative futures with intention, purpose and foresight.

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