cosmology

From Medieval Latin cosmologia, from Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos, “world”) + -λογία (-logía, “treating of”), combination form of -λόγος (-lógos, “one who speaks (in a certain manner)”).

• Rhymes: -ɒlədʒi

cosmology (countable and uncountable, plural cosmologies)

1. The study of the physical universe, its structure, dynamics, origin and evolution, and fate.
   • 2012 January 1, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 1, page 23:

     We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.

2. A metaphysical study into the origin and nature of the universe.
3. A particular view (cultural or religious) of the structure and origin of the universe.

• cosmologist
• cosmogony
• cosmological

• eschatology
• big bang theory
• steady state theory