Definition of "phenomenology" [phe•nom•e•nol•o•gy]

• A philosophy or method of inquiry based on the premise that reality consists of objects and events as they are perceived or understood in human consciousness and not of anything independent of human consciousness. (noun)
• A movement based on this, originated about 1905 by Edmund Husserl. (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.

• "Instead of using Helmholtz's terminology, Stumpf, as did most historians, preferred the term phenomenology to designate the study of phenomenal experience, which occupied center stage in the fields of physiology and psychology."
• "A large branch of experimental fiction came about through modernism (and Woolf is an excellent example) that was interested in phenomenology, or how we perceive the material world."
• "Presenting simplified descriptions in terms of phenomenology is one thing, but presenting descriptions of something that you admit requires not only general relativity, but a theory of quantum gravity, in terms of classical mechanics should be a warning sign to most readers."