cosmos
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English cossmos (“the universe; the world”), borrowed from Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos, “order; universe; the earth, the world; decoration, ornament”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱens- (“to announce, proclaim; to put in order”).
The plural form cosmoi is a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κόσμοι (kósmoi).
Inflected forms:
form: cosmoses
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: cosmoi
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: kosmos
pos: noun
tags: alternative
archaic
Senses:
gloss: The universe regarded as a system with harmony and order.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: This doctrine [the nebular hypothesis] supposes all the material universe to have been once in a fluid or nebular condition, and that, by the operation of universal gravitation and the thousand other laws of nature, the nebular matter has been mainly aggregated into masses, and the existing cosmoi been developed.
It [the earth] was in the centre of the Kosmos; it remained stationary because of its equal distance from all parts of the outer revolving spheres; there was no cause determining it to move upward rather than downward or sideways, therefore it remained still. Its exhalations nourished the fire in the peripheral regions of the Kosmos.
Can you conceive a process by which you, an organic being, are in the same way dissolved into the cosmos, and then by a subtle reversal of the conditions reassembled once more?"
The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us—there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.
Along with this question of order was the question of whether there was one cosmos or many ‘cosmoi’. Plato and Aristotle firmly believed that there was one unique cosmos that was in some way structured for the best. The atomists, on the other hand, believed that there were many cosmoi, separate from one another, in which everything happened by chance.
In seeking a satisfactory formulation of materialism, it helps to employ the notion of a possible world. Possible worlds are plausibly construed not literally as universes other than the single real universe (i.e., not as cosmoi), but rather as total ways the cosmos might be—i.e., maximal properties instantiable by the single real world (the single cosmos). On this usage, the item designated as the actual world—considered as one among the various possible worlds—is not itself the cosmos either, but rather is the total cosmos-instantiable property that is actually instantiated by the cosmos. But it will be convenient in practice to speak as though the actual world is the cosmos and as though other possible worlds are other such cosmoi — a harmless enough manner of speaking, as long as one bears in mind that it is not intended literally.
In Dr [Christof] Wetterich's picture of the cosmos the redshift others attribute to expansion is, rather, the result of the universe putting on weight. If atoms weighed less in the past, he reasons, the light they emitted then would, in keeping with the laws of quantum mechanics, have been less energetic than the light they emit now.
gloss: The universe regarded as a system with harmony and order.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
countable
uncountable
examples: This simple cell is a cosmos in this respect: it represents the laws of the universe in changes of matter, and clearly exemplifies their workings in the oral cavity.
Obviously, there are multiple cosmoses in the debate, out of which we picked four. The two first can be understood as compromise cosmoses. […] There is the cosmos of the reformer, which took by and large shape in the EDDP and which we entitled Public Future. Then there is the cosmos of the existing mode of ordering the city which by and large prevailed in the RDDP. […] Further, we present two cosmoses nurturing the strong opposition. They are both militant perspectives surging from the "civil society".
gloss: Harmony, order.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: He [Frederick I of Prussia] founded Universities, this poor King; University of Halle; Royal Academy of Berlin, [Gottfried Wilhelm] Leibniz presiding: he fought for Protestantism;—did what he could for the cause of Cosmos versus Chaos, after his fashion.
Related words: Cosmas
cosmic
cosmo-
cosmogony
cosmography
cosmology
cosmonaut
cosmopolitan
cosmovision
Derived words: chaosmos
cosmic
cosmism
cosmist
cosmize
microcosmos
paracosmos
trichiliocosm
Translations:
lang: Afrikaans
word: kosmos
lang: Albanian
word: kozmos
lang: Albanian
word: gjithësi
lang: Arabic
word: فَضَاء
roman: faḍāʔ
lang: Arabic
word: كَوْن
roman: kawn
lang: Arabic
word: الْكَوْن
roman: al-kawn
lang: Armenian
word: կոսմոս
roman: kosmos
lang: Armenian
word: տիեզերք
roman: tiezerkʻ
lang: Azerbaijani
word: kosmos
lang: Belarusian
word: ко́смас
roman: kósmas
lang: Belarusian
word: сусве́т
roman: susvjét
lang: Belarusian
word: сусьве́т
roman: susʹvjét
lang: Bulgarian
word: ко́смос
roman: kósmos
lang: Bulgarian
word: вселе́на
roman: vseléna
lang: Bulgarian
word: всеми́р
roman: vsemír
lang: Catalan
word: cosmos
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 太空
roman: tàikōng
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 宇宙
roman: yǔzhòu
lang: Chukchi
word: иʼиʼн
roman: iʼiʼn
lang: Chukchi
word: ӈаргынэн
roman: ṇargynėn
lang: Chukchi
word: ымӈаргынэн
roman: ymṇargynėn
lang: Cornish
word: kosmos
lang: Czech
word: kosmos
lang: Czech
word: vesmír
lang: Danish
word: kosmos
lang: Dutch
word: kosmos
lang: Dutch
word: heelal
lang: Dutch
word: wereldal
lang: Esperanto
word: kosmo
lang: Estonian
word: kosmos
lang: Finnish
word: kosmos
lang: Finnish
word: maailmankaikkeus
lang: French
word: cosmos
lang: Galician
word: cosmos
lang: Georgian
word: კოსმოსი
roman: ḳosmosi
lang: German
word: Kosmos
lang: German
word: All
lang: German
word: Weltall
lang: Greek
word: κόσμος
roman: kósmos
lang: Hebrew
word: קוֹסמוֹס
roman: kósmos
lang: Hungarian
word: kozmosz
lang: Hungarian
word: világegyetem
lang: Icelandic
word: alheimur
lang: Ido
word: kosmo
lang: Indonesian
word: kosmos
lang: Italian
word: cosmo
lang: Japanese
word: コスモス
roman: kosumosu
lang: Japanese
word: 宇宙
roman: uchū
lang: Kazakh
word: ғалам
roman: ğalam
lang: Kazakh
word: ғарыш
roman: ğaryş
lang: Khmer
word: អវកាស
roman: ʼaʼvĕəʼkaah
lang: Korean
word: 코스모스
roman: koseumoseu
lang: Korean
word: 우주
roman: uju
lang: Kyrgyz
word: аалам
roman: aalam
lang: Kyrgyz
word: бүт дүйнө
roman: büt düynö
lang: Lao
word: ຈັກກະວານ
roman: chak ka wān
lang: Latin
word: mundus
lang: Latvian
word: kosmoss
lang: Lithuanian
word: kosmosas
lang: Macedonian
word: космос
roman: kosmos
lang: Macedonian
word: вселена
roman: vselena
lang: Malay
word: kosmos
lang: Māori
word: tātai tuarangi
lang: Mongolian
word: сансар
roman: sansar
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: kosmos
lang: Old English
word: gesceaft
lang: Persian
word: کیهان
roman: keyhân
lang: Polish
word: kosmos
lang: Polish
word: wszechświat
lang: Portuguese
word: cosmo
lang: Portuguese
word: cosmos
lang: Romanian
word: cosmos
lang: Russian
word: ко́смос
roman: kósmos
lang: Russian
word: вселе́нная
roman: vselénnaja
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: ко̏смос
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: све̏мӣр
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: васио́на
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: kȍsmos
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: svȅmīr
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: vasióna
lang: Sicilian
word: cosmu
lang: Sicilian
word: còsimu
lang: Slovak
word: kosmos
lang: Slovak
word: vesmír
lang: Slovene
word: kozmos
lang: Slovene
word: vesolje
lang: Spanish
word: cosmos
lang: Swedish
word: kosmos
lang: Tagalog
word: kosmos
lang: Tagalog
word: mayaw
lang: Tajik
word: кайҳон
roman: kayhon
lang: Tajik
word: коинот
roman: koyinot
lang: Thai
word: จักรวาล
roman: jàk-grà-waan
lang: Turkish
word: kozmos
lang: Turkish
word: evren
lang: Turkmen
word: kosmos
lang: Ukrainian
word: ко́смос
roman: kósmos
lang: Ukrainian
word: все́світ
roman: vsésvit
lang: Uyghur
word: كائىنات
roman: ka'inat
lang: Uyghur
word: پەزا
roman: peza
lang: Uzbek
word: kosmos
lang: Uzbek
word: fazo
lang: Uzbek
word: koinot
lang: Vietnamese
word: vũ trụ
lang: Volapük
word: kosmod
lang: Yiddish
word: קאָסמאָס
roman: kosmos