philosophy

English

Alternative forms

philosophie (obsolete)
phylosophie (obsolete)
phylosophy (nonstandard)

Etymology

From Middle English philosophie, Old French philosophie, and their source, Latin philosophia, from Ancient Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophía), from φίλος (phílos, “loving”) + σοφία (sophía, “wisdom”). Synchronically, philo- +‎ -sophy.

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /fɪˈlɒsəfi/
Audio (GA) (file)

Noun

philosophy (countable and uncountable, plural philosophies)

(uncountable, originally) The love of wisdom.
(uncountable) An academic discipline that seeks truth through reasoning rather than empiricism.
Philosophy is often divided into five major branches: logic, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and aesthetics.
- 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond
  During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant […]
(countable) A comprehensive system of belief.
(countable) A view or outlook regarding fundamental principles underlying some domain.
a philosophy of government; a philosophy of education
(countable) A general principle (usually moral).
(archaic) A broader branch of (non-applied) science.
A calm and thoughtful demeanor; calmness of temper.
(French printing, dated) Synonym of small pica.

Meronyms

See also Thesaurus:philosophy

Derived terms

Related terms

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Translations

the pursuit of wisdom

Belarusian: філасо́фія (filasófija)
Burmese: ဒဿနဗေဒ (da.ssa.na.beda.)
Dutch: wijsbegeerte (nl) f, filosofie (nl) f
Greek: φιλοσοφία (el) f (filosofía)
Ancient: φιλοσοφία f (philosophía)

Japanese: 悟り (ja) (さとり, satori)
Macedonian: мудрување n (mudruvanje)
Old English: ūþwitegung f
Scottish Gaelic: feallsanachd f
Ukrainian: філосо́фія (uk) f (filosófija)

academic discipline

Arabic: فَلْسَفَة‎ f (falsafa)
Armenian: փիլիսոփայություն (hy) (pʿilisopʿayutʿyun)
Balinese: ᬢᬢ᭄ᬢ᭄ᬯ (tattwa)
Basque: filosofia
Belarusian: філасо́фія f (filasófija)
Bulgarian: филосо́фия (bg) f (filosófija)
Burmese: ဒဿနဗေဒ (da.ssa.na.beda.), သဘာဝတ္ထဗေဒ (my) (sa.bhawathta.beda.)
Catalan: filosofia (ca)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 哲学 (zh) (zhéxué)
Czech: filozofie (cs) f, filosofie (cs) f
Danish: filosofi (da) c
Dutch: filosofie (nl) f, wijsbegeerte (nl) f
Esperanto: filozofio (eo)
Faroese: heimspeki f
Finnish: filosofia (fi)
French: philosophie (fr) f
Galician: filosofía (gl) f
Georgian: ფილოსოფია (pilosopia)
German: Philosophie (de) f
Greek: φιλοσοφία (el) f (filosofía)
Ancient: φιλοσοφία f (philosophía)
Hindi: दर्शन (hi) m (darśan)
Hungarian: filozófia (hu)
Ido: filozofio (io)
Indonesian: filsafat (id), falsafah (id)
Interlingua: philosophia (ia)
Irish: fealsúnacht f
Italian: filosofia (it) f
Japanese: 哲学 (ja) (てつがく, tetsugaku)
Khmer: ទស្សនវិជ្ជា (km) (tʊəhsana vɨcchie)
Korean: 철학 (ko) (cheolhak)
Latin: philosophia (la) f
Latvian: filozofija f

Lithuanian: filosofija (lt) m
Macedonian: философија f (filosofija), филозофија f (filozofija)
Malay: falsafah (ms)
Maori: whakaaromōhio
Muong: tliết học
Norwegian:
Bokmål: filosofi (no) m

Nynorsk: filosofi m
Old English: ūþwitegung f
Persian: فلسفه‎ (fa) (falsafe)
Polish: filozofia (pl) f
Portuguese: filosofia (pt) f
Romanian: filozofie (ro) f
Russian: филосо́фия (ru) f (filosófija)
Scottish Gaelic: feallsanachd f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: филозофија f

Roman: filozofija (sh) f
Slovak: filozofia f
Spanish: filosofía (es) f
Swahili: falsafa (sw) class 9
Swedish: filosofi (sv) c
Tagalog: pilosopya, batnayan
Tajik: фалсафа (tg) (falsafa)
Tamil: மெய்யியல் (ta) (meyyiyal), தத்துவம் (ta) (tattuvam)
Thai: ปรัชญา (th) (bpràt-yaa)
Turkish: felsefe (tr)
Ukrainian: філосо́фія (uk) f (filosófija)
Urdu: فلسفہ‎
Uyghur: پەلسەپە‎ (pelsepe)
Vietnamese: triết học (vi)
Volapük: filosop (vo)
West Frisian: wiisbegearte
Yiddish: פֿילאָסאָפֿיע‎ f (filosofye)

comprehensive system of belief

Arabic: فَلْسَفَة‎ f (falsafa), مَذْهَب‎ (ar) m (maḏhab)
Armenian: փիլիսոփայություն (hy) (pʿilisopʿayutʿyun)
Catalan: filosofia (ca)
Czech: filozofie (cs) f
Dutch: filosofie (nl) f
Esperanto: filozofio (eo)
Finnish: filosofia (fi)
Galician: filosofía (gl) f
Greek: φιλοσοφία (el) f (filosofía)
Hungarian: filozófia (hu)
Japanese: 哲学 (ja) (てつがく, tetsugaku)

Macedonian: философија f (filosofija), филозофија f (filozofija)
Portuguese: filosofia (pt) f
Romanian: filozofie (ro) f
Russian: филосо́фия (ru) f (filosófija)
Scottish Gaelic: feallsanachd f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: филозофија f

Roman: filozofija (sh) f
Swedish: filosofi (sv) c
Ukrainian: філосо́фія (uk) f (filosófija)
West Frisian: filosofy c

view regarding fundamental principles

Arabic: مَذْهَب‎ (ar) m (maḏhab), عَقِيدَة‎ (ar) f (ʿaqīda)
Armenian: փիլիսոփայություն (hy) (pʿilisopʿayutʿyun)
Catalan: filosofia (ca)
Dutch: filosofie (nl) f
Finnish: filosofia (fi)
Galician: filosofía (gl) f
Greek: φιλοσοφία (el) f (filosofía)
Hungarian: filozófia (hu)
Japanese: 方針 (ja) (ほうしん, hōshin), 方向 (ja) (ほうこう, hōkō), 主義 (ja) (しゅぎ, shugi), (figuratively) 哲学 (ja) (てつがく, tetsugaku)

Macedonian: философија f (filosofija), филозофија f (filozofija)
Portuguese: filosofia (pt) f
Romanian: filozofie (ro) f
Russian: филосо́фия (ru) f (filosófija)
Scottish Gaelic: feallsanachd f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: филозофија f

Roman: filozofija (sh) f
Swedish: filosofi (sv) c

general principle

Arabic: مَبْدَأ‎ m (mabdaʾ), مَذْهَب‎ (ar) m (maḏhab)
Armenian: փիլիսոփայություն (hy) (pʿilisopʿayutʿyun)
Catalan: filosofia (ca)
Dutch: filosofie (nl) f
Finnish: filosofia (fi), periaate (fi)
Galician: filosofía (gl) f
Hungarian: filozófia (hu)
Japanese: 方針 (ja) (ほうしん, hōshin), 方向 (ja) (ほうこう, hōkō), 主義 (ja) (しゅぎ, shugi), (figuratively) 哲学 (ja) (てつがく, tetsugaku)

Macedonian: философија f (filosofija), филозофија f (filozofija)
Portuguese: filosofia (pt) f
Romanian: filozofie (ro) f
Scottish Gaelic: feallsanachd f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: филозофија f

Roman: filozofija (sh) f
Swedish: filosofi (sv) c

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

Estonian: ^{(please verify)} filosoofia (et)
French: ^{(please verify)} philosophie (fr)
German: ^{(please verify)} Philosophie (de) f
Icelandic: ^{(please verify)} heimspeki (is)
Italian: ^{(please verify)} filosofia (it) f
Lithuanian: ^{(please verify)} filosofija (lt) f
Maltese: ^{(please verify)} filosofija f
Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 哲学 (zh) (zhéxué)

Romanian: ^{(please verify)} filosofie f, ^{(please verify)} filozofie (ro) f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: ^{(please verify)} филозофија f

Roman: ^{(please verify)} filozofija (sh) f
Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} filozofija (sh) f
Spanish: ^{(please verify)} filosofía (es) f
Telugu: ^{(please verify)} తత్వం (tatvaṃ), ^{(please verify)} తాత్వికత (tātvikata) h(taatvikata)

Verb

philosophy (third-person singular simple present philosophies, present participle philosophying, simple past and past participle philosophied)

(now rare) To philosophize.
- 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
  Plato hath (in my seeming) loved this manner of Philosophying, Dialogue wise in good earnest, that therby he might more decently place in sundry mouthes the diversity and variation of his owne conceits.

References

“philosophy” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
“philosophy” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.