cos·mog·o·ny

(kŏz-mŏg′ə-nē)

n. pl. cos·mog·o·nies

a. The astrophysical study of the origin and evolution of the universe.

b. A specific theory or model of the origin and evolution of the universe.

2. A philosophical, religious, or mythical explanation of the origin of the universe.

cos′mo·gon′ic (-mə-gŏn′ĭk), cos′mo·gon′i·cal adj.

cos′mo·gon′i·cal·ly adv.

cos·mog′o·nist n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

cosmogonical - pertaining to the branch of astronomy dealing with the origin and history and structure and dynamics of the universe; "cosmologic science"; "cosmological redshift"; "cosmogonic theories of the origin of the universe"

cosmogenic, cosmogonic, cosmologic, cosmological

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References in periodicals archive

Spenser's diamond "pillers of eternity" in this cosmogonical equation are the foundation on which the Earth rests, while the "shining cristall wall" is the domed circumference (the vault) of the Earth.

Edmund Spenser and the mystic universe

None of the sources on Anaximander refers to the beginning of the cosmogonical process as a [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].

"... Going further on down the road ..." The origin and foundations of Milesian thought

The story is a cosmogonical myth, the Genesis chapter to the whole of Middle-earth.

Fantasy Music: Epic Soundtracks, Magical Instruments, Musical Metaphysics

His catalogue is also followed by the shift to the description of another level, the cosmogonical moment when the Chaos of unlimited possibilities has not yet received the form of Cosmos.

Maturing into childhood: an interpretive framework of a modern cosmogony and poetics

Similarly, Hardie's "Lucretian" reading of Venus's seduction of Vulcan as "an invitation to extract a more serious and philosophical allusion, or [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], to the hieros gamos as cosmogonical allegory" (see Hardie 1985, 91) is entirely plausible when set within the intellectual frame of a contemporary reader's literary and philosophical "encyclopedia."

"Cum femina primum ...": Venus, Vulcan, and the politics of male mollitia in Aeneid 8

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