Ontological

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to the nature of existence or being itself, or concerned with what fundamentally exists in reality
2. Concerned with the fundamental nature and categories of existence, or examining what must necessarily be true about the structure of reality itself
3. Related to the philosophical exploration of what it means to exist and the essence of being

Etymology: Ontological is a word built in layers, and its oldest piece is a participle of "to be." The Greek "ōn" (genitive "ontos") is the present participle of "eimi," meaning "being," and it gave Greek philosophers a term for the things that exist. Greek "logos," meaning word, reason or account, was then joined to it, so "ontology" originally meant something like an account of being. The compound was revived in the 17th century as a Latin scholarly coinage, "ontologia," and later entered English as "ontology." "Ontological" is the plain adjective made from that noun by adding the suffix "-ical," which descends from Latin "-icus" and "-alis," both forming adjectives meaning "relating to." It is a regular English formation, so its meaning follows directly from the noun: anything concerned with the study of being, or the basic categories of what exists, is ontological.

Synonyms: metaphysical, philosophical