metaphysics
n functioning as sing
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)
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metaphysician
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metaphysicist n