Definition of "teleology" [te•le•ol•o•gy]

• The study of design or purpose in natural phenomena. (noun)
• The use of ultimate purpose or design as a means of explaining phenomena. (noun)
• Belief in or the perception of purposeful development toward an end, as in nature or history. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Intelligence, this is a question altogether foreign to any argument from teleology, seeing that teleology, in so far as it is _teleology_, can only rest upon the observed facts of the cosmos; and if these facts admit of being explained by the action of a single causative principle inherent in the cosmos itself, teleology is not free to assume the action of any causative principle of a more ultimate character."
• "By the way, teleology is a word I seldom hear, and this is the first time it's come up in an interview."
• "Perhaps dropping the term teleology helps avoid the confusion witnessed here and it would make it easier to avoid the conflation of terminology used by the ID movement but understanding the history of these arguments is what is important to understand the arguments."