English Dictionary

PHENOMENON (phenomena)

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IPA (US): 

Irregular inflected form: phenomena  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation

 Dictionary entry overview: What does phenomenon mean? 

PHENOMENON (noun)
  The noun PHENOMENON has 2 senses:

1. any state or process known through the senses rather than by intuition or reasoningplay

2. a remarkable developmentplay

  Familiarity information: PHENOMENON used as a noun is rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


PHENOMENON (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

Any state or process known through the senses rather than by intuition or reasoning

Classified under:

Nouns with no superordinates

Hypernyms ("phenomenon" is a kind of...):

physical process; process (a sustained phenomenon or one marked by gradual changes through a series of states)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "phenomenon"):

natural phenomenon (all phenomena that are not artificial)

levitation (the phenomenon of a person or thing rising into the air by apparently supernatural means)

metempsychosis; rebirth (after death the soul begins a new cycle of existence in another human body)

consequence; effect; event; issue; outcome; result; upshot (a phenomenon that follows and is caused by some previous phenomenon)

chance; fortune; hazard; luck (an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event to result one way rather than another)

fortune; luck (an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that leads to a favorable outcome)

pulsation (a periodically recurring phenomenon that alternately increases and decreases some quantity)


Sense 2

Meaning:

A remarkable development

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("phenomenon" is a kind of...):

development (a recent event that has some relevance for the present situation)


 Context examples 


That branch of physiology that is concerned with the electric phenomena associated with living bodies and involved in their functional activity.

(Electrophysiology, NCI Thesaurus)

They investigated whether this phenomenon helped preserve immune memory when calorie intake was reduced.

(Memory T cells shelter in bone marrow, boosting immunity in mice with restricted diets, National Institutes of Health)

This phenomenon, called "cell fusion", is very particular.

(Researchers Discovered Proteins Essential to Development of Skeletal Muscle, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The reason for this phenomenon to occur is quite simple.

(The most reliable scientific model to date for detecting when a person is lying, based on thermography, University of Granada)

It may present as an isolated phenomenon or in association with spina bifida.

(Diastematomyelia, NCI Thesaurus)

The lytic phenomenon is sometimes referred to as cell-mediated lympholysis (CML).

(Murine T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic, NCI Thesaurus)

The process underlying a biological, chemical or physical nanoscale phenomenon.

(Nanoscale Mechanism, NCI Thesaurus)

This may occur as an isolated phenomenon or as a manifestation of an underlying disease process (e.g., UREMIA; HYPOTHYROIDISM; MOTOR NEURON DISEASE; etc.).

(Muscle Cramp, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

This phenomenon, with the field alternating in direction, has never been seen before in the halo of a galaxy.

(Giant magnetic ropes seen in Whale Galaxy's halo, National Science Foundation)

Even at their much colder temperatures, most of our solar system's gas giants also exhibit this phenomenon.

(Hubble Observes Exoplanet that Snows Sunscreen, NASA)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"The wish is father to the thought." (English proverb)

"Fun and pleasure are located below the navel; dispute and trouble are also located there." (Bhutanese proverb)

"A spark can start a fire that burns the entire prairie." (Chinese proverb)

"He who changes, suffers." (Corsican proverb)



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