phenomenology
noun
phe·nom·e·nol·o·gy fi-ˌnä-mə-ˈnä-lə-jē 
plural phenomenologies
1
: the study of the development of human consciousness and self-awareness as a preface to or a part of philosophy
2
a(1)
: a philosophical movement that describes the formal structure of the objects of awareness and of awareness itself in abstraction from any claims concerning existence
(2)
: the typological classification of a class of phenomena
the phenomenology of religion
b
: an analysis produced by phenomenological investigation
phenomenologist
fi-ˌnä-mə-ˈnä-lə-jist
noun 
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web While the phenomenology has changed over time, melancholy hasn’t gone anywhere. 
Mina Seçkin, refinery29.com, 17 Nov. 2021 So at the level of experience, at the level of phenomenology, consciousness has these two properties that coexist. Quanta Magazine, 30 Sep. 2021 Beauvoir was the more expansive thinker and better stylist: dialectical; subtle; fluent in biology, psychoanalysis, sociology, anthropology, political theory, existentialism, phenomenology, and so on. Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 28 July 2021 The phenomenology of its middling ordinariness is exactly what makes Bling Empire worthy of celebration. Jean Chen Ho, Harper's BAZAAR, 17 Feb. 2021 Issues of race and gender are explored in the show, along with the visual phenomenology of gaming technology. Steven Litt, cleveland, 8 Dec. 2019 Everybody liked a little pick-me-up, especially after one of Merleau-Ponty’s strenuous and long expositions on phenomenology. Longreads, 10 Apr. 2018 Andrija Puharich is the pioneer of the book, the man who monetized and institutionalized psychic phenomenology. Dick Teresi, New York Times, 25 Apr. 2017 Mayberg’s work, for instance, reveals something vital about both the physiology and phenomenology of depression — namely, that depression is not simply an absence or a lack but the instantiation of a network run amok. David Dobbs, WIRED, 4 July 2006 See More
Mina Seçkin, refinery29.com, 17 Nov. 2021 So at the level of experience, at the level of phenomenology, consciousness has these two properties that coexist. Quanta Magazine, 30 Sep. 2021 Beauvoir was the more expansive thinker and better stylist: dialectical; subtle; fluent in biology, psychoanalysis, sociology, anthropology, political theory, existentialism, phenomenology, and so on. Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 28 July 2021 The phenomenology of its middling ordinariness is exactly what makes Bling Empire worthy of celebration. Jean Chen Ho, Harper's BAZAAR, 17 Feb. 2021 Issues of race and gender are explored in the show, along with the visual phenomenology of gaming technology. Steven Litt, cleveland, 8 Dec. 2019 Everybody liked a little pick-me-up, especially after one of Merleau-Ponty’s strenuous and long expositions on phenomenology. Longreads, 10 Apr. 2018 Andrija Puharich is the pioneer of the book, the man who monetized and institutionalized psychic phenomenology. Dick Teresi, New York Times, 25 Apr. 2017 Mayberg’s work, for instance, reveals something vital about both the physiology and phenomenology of depression — namely, that depression is not simply an absence or a lack but the instantiation of a network run amok. David Dobbs, WIRED, 4 July 2006 See More Word History
Etymology
German Phänomenologie, from Phänomenon phenomenon + -logie -logy
First Known Use
circa 1797, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Medical Definition
phenomenology
noun
phe·nom·e·nol·o·gy fi-ˌnäm-ə-ˈnäl-ə-jē
plural phenomenologies
: the way in which one perceives and interprets events and one's relationship to them in contrast both to one's objective responses to stimuli and to any inferred unconscious motivation for one's behavior
also : a psychology based on the theory that phenomenology determines behavior