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entelechy - 5 dictionary results

en⋅tel⋅e⋅chy

  [en-tel-uh-kee]
Use entelechy in a Sentence
–noun, plural -chies.
1. a realization or actuality as opposed to a potentiality.
2. (in vitalist philosophy) a vital agent or force directing growth and life.
Origin:
1595–1605; < LL entelechīa < Gk entelécheia, equiv. to en- en- 2 + tél(os) goal + éch(ein) to have + -eia -y 3

Related forms:
en⋅te⋅lech⋅i⋅al  [en-tuh-lek-ee-uhl] , adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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en·tel·e·chy   (ěn-těl'ĭ-kē)   
n.   pl. en·tel·e·chies
  1. In the philosophy of Aristotle, the condition of a thing whose essence is fully realized; actuality.
  2. In some philosophical systems, a vital force that directs an organism toward self-fulfillment.

[Late Latin entelechīa, from Greek entelekheia : entelēs, complete (en-, in; see en-2 + telos, completion; see kwel-1 in Indo-European roots) + ekhein, to have; see segh- in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Entelechy

En*tel"e*chy\, n. [L. entelechia, Gr. ?, prob. fr. ? ? ? to be complete; ? + ? completion, end + ? to have or hold.] (Peripatetic Philos.) An actuality; a conception completely actualized, in distinction from mere potential existence.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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entelechy 
1603, from Gk. entelekheia, from en- "in" + telei, dat. of telos "perfection" (see tele-) + ekhein "to have." In Aristotle, "the condition in which a potentiality has become an actuality."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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entelechy

(from Greek entelecheia), in philosophy, that which realizes or makes actual what is otherwise merely potential. The concept is intimately connected with Aristotle's distinction between matter and form, or the potential and the actual. He analyzed each thing into the stuff or elements of which it is composed and the form which makes it what it is (see hylomorphism). The mere stuff or matter is not yet the real thing; it needs a certain form or essence or function to complete it. Matter and form, however, are never separated; they can only be distinguished. Thus, in the case of a living organism, for example, the sheer matter of the organism (viewed only as a synthesis of inorganic substances) can be distinguished from a certain form or function or inner activity, without which it would not be a living organism at all; and this "soul" or "vital function" is what Aristotle in his De anima (On the Soul ) called the entelechy (or first entelechy) of the living organism. Similarly, rational activity is what makes a man to be a man and distinguishes him from a brute animal.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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