metaphysics (ˌmɛtəˈfɪzɪks) ![]() | |
| —n | |
| 1. | the branch of philosophy that deals with first principles, esp of being and knowing |
| 2. | the philosophical study of the nature of reality, concerned with such questions as the existence of God, the external world, etc |
| 3. | See descriptive metaphysics |
| 4. | (popularly) abstract or subtle discussion or reasoning |
| [C16: from Medieval Latin, from Greek ta meta ta phusika the things after the physics, from the arrangement of the subjects treated in the works of Aristotle] | |
| metaphysician | |
| —n | |
| metaphysicist | |
| —n | |
| the offspring of a zebra and a donkey. |
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |