metaphysics
noun
J. H. RandallTime
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Just as physics deals with the laws that govern the physical world (such as those of gravity or the properties of waves), metaphysics describes what is beyond physics—the nature and origin of reality itself, the immortal soul, and the existence of a supreme being. Opinions about these metaphysical topics vary widely, since what's being discussed can't be observed or measured or even truly known to exist. So most metaphysical questions are still as far from a final answer as they were when Plato and Aristotle were asking them.
Examples of metaphysics in a Sentence
News Desk, Artforum, 24 Mar. 2025
She is caught up in an awareness of the marmots—of a concurrent marmot universe, of a concurrent marmot metaphysics.
—Joseph O’Neill, The New Yorker, 23 Feb. 2025
The meme’s humor lies in its shallow expressions of deep feeling: existential problems otherwise worthy of metaphysics or high literature here flung out as low-res Internet flatulence.
—Lauren Michele Jackson, The New Yorker, 27 Feb. 2025
Both were involved in the New Thought Movement, a 19th-century spiritual movement that emphasized metaphysics and portrayed disease as an error of thought.
—Helen L. Murphey / Made By History, TIME, 29 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Metaphysics.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metaphysics. Accessed 6 May. 2025.
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metaphysics
noun
from Latin Metaphysica, title given to a work by Aristotle on the subject, from Greek (ta) meta (ta) physika, literally, "the (works) after the physical (works)"; so called because this section came after the section on physics and physical nature in a collection of Aristotle's collected writings
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