Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Mechanically determined.
  • adjective Philosophy Of or relating to the philosophy of mechanism, especially tending to explain phenomena only by reference to physical or biological causes.
  • adjective Automatic and impersonal; mechanical.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to mechanism or to mechanists: as, “mechanistic combination,”

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having the impersonal and automatic characteristics of a machine
  • adjective Predetermined by, or as if by, a mechanism
  • adjective philosophy Having a physical or biological cause

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective explained in terms of physical forces
  • adjective of or relating to the philosophical theory of mechanism

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word mechanistic.

Examples

  • Pivar says he's been working for years in the Thompson tradition, which he characterizes as a mechanistic approach to evolution, using lab simulations, algorithms and topology.

    ScreenTalk 2009

  • Pivar says he's been working for years in the Thompson tradition, which he characterizes as a mechanistic approach to evolution, using lab simulations, algorithms and topology.

    ScreenTalk 2009

  • This sort of thing suggests that minds are grounded in mechanistic biology, rather than the other way around.

    A Useless Critic 2007

  • Somehow you seem to think that the mere offering of what you term a mechanistic model with no evidence (nor even much of an explanation) trumps other concepts and makes you "scientific" and others not.

    A Third Choice (ID Hypothesis) 2007

  • This sort of thing suggests that minds are grounded in mechanistic biology, rather than the other way around.

    A Useless Critic 2007

  • Somehow you seem to think that the mere offering of what you term a mechanistic model with no evidence (nor even much of an explanation) trumps other concepts and makes you "scientific" and others not.

    A Third Choice (ID Hypothesis) 2007

  • I suggest scientific patience is quickly running out since inventors are already using applied quantum mechanics and there are two main mechanistic explanations.

    Cleaning Up The Mess 2007

  • All evolutionary theories must offer an explanation in mechanistic terms of how it should or could have happened in order to be tested.

    A critique on the endosymbiotic theory for the origin of mitochondria 2007

  • This sort of thing suggests that minds are grounded in mechanistic biology, rather than the other way around.

    A Useless Critic 2007

  • In typography, a slab serif (also called mechanistic, square serif or Egyptian) typeface is a type of serif typeface characterized by thick, block-like serifs.

    teddy-risation™ 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.