<B>phillumenist, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a collector of matchbox labels. </DL>
<A NAME="phillumeny">
<B>phillumeny, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the hobby of a phillumenist. </DL>
<A NAME="philo">
<B>philo-,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (combining form.) loving; having an affection for. <BR> <I>Ex. Philoprogenitive = loving one's progeny.</I> <DL COMPACT><DD> Also, <B>phil-</B> before vowels. </DL>
</DL>
<A NAME="philobiblic">
<B>philobiblic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> fond of books; bibliophilous. </DL>
<A NAME="philobiblist">
<B>philobiblist, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a lover of books; bibliophile. </DL>
<A NAME="philoctetes">
<B>Philoctetes, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Greek Legend.) a Greek archer, hero in the Trojan War. He inherited the bow and arrow of Hercules from his father; only by means of this could Paris be shot and Troy destroyed. Bitten by a serpent on the way to the war, and obnoxious to his companions because of his wound, he was for some years abandoned on the uninhabited island of Lemnos, but later brought to Troy. </DL>
<A NAME="philodendron">
<B>philodendron, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a climbing evergreen plant with smooth (but tough), shiny leaves, often grown as a house plant. It is a tropical American plant that belongs to the arum family. There are several kinds of philodendron, comprising a genus of plants. <DD><B> 2. </B>any one of certain related or similar plants. </DL>
<A NAME="philogynist">
<B>philogynist, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a lover or admirer of women. </DL>
<B>philogyny, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> love of women. </DL>
<A NAME="philol">
<B>philol.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> philology. </DL>
<A NAME="philologer">
<B>philologer, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Archaic.) a philologist. </DL>
<A NAME="philologian">
<B>philologian, </B>noun. =philologist.</DL>
<A NAME="philologic">
<B>philologic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having to do with philology; concerned with the study of language. adv. <B>philologically.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="philological">
<B>philological, </B>adjective. =philologic.</DL>
<A NAME="philologist">
<B>philologist, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who studies philology. <BR> <I>Ex. The philologists of the nineteenth century succeeded in promoting the autonomy of linguistics as an independent discipline (Simeon Potter).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="philologue">
<B>philologue, </B>noun. =philologist.</DL>
<A NAME="philology">
<B>philology, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>an older name for linguistics; the science of language. <DD><B> 2. </B>the study of literary and other records. <DD><B> 3. </B>(formerly) literary or classical scholarship; the study of literature, including grammar, criticism, and etymology. </DL>
<A NAME="philomath">
<B>philomath, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1a. </B>a lover of learning. <DD><B> b. </B>a student, especially of mathematics or science. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Obsolete.) an astrologer. </DL>
<B>philomathy, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> love of learning. </DL>
<A NAME="philomel">
<B>philomel</B> or <B>Philomel, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Archaic.) the nightingale. <BR> <I>Ex. All night long sweet Philomel pours forth her ravishing, delightful song (Tobias Smollett).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="philomela">
<B>Philomela, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>(Greek Mythology.) a princess who was turned into a nightingale and as a bird continued to lament the tragedy of her life. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Poetic.) the nightingale. </DL>
<A NAME="philopena">
<B>philopena, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a game involving the sharing of a nut with two kernels between two people, with the agreement that the one failing to keep some stated condition shall pay a forfeit. <DD><B> 2. </B>the nut. <DD><B> 3. </B>the forfeit. </DL>
<A NAME="philoprogeneity">
<B>philoprogeneity, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> love of one's offspring; philoprogenitiveness. </DL>
<A NAME="philoprogenitive">
<B>philoprogenitive, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>loving one's offspring; having to do with love of offspring. <DD><B> 2. </B>inclined to produce many offspring; prolific. noun <B>philoprogenitiveness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="philos">
<B>philos.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> philosophy. </DL>
<A NAME="philosophe">
<B>philosophe, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>one of a group of French rationalist, humanistic, deistic, and often revolutionary philosophers of the 1700's, typified by Denis Diderot. <BR> <I>Ex. The intellectual life of Paris centered on ... the philosophes, who were presently to compile a great encyclopedia of human knowledge (Atlantic).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a philosopher. <BR> <I>Ex. Madison was the last of the Virginia philosophes, the ultimate innocent who could seriously consult the Cabbala for the principles of good government (Manchester Guardian).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="philosopher">
<B>philosopher, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a lover of wisdom; person who studies philosophy a great deal. <BR> <I>Ex. Our philosophers have not been slow to go beyond the ... dogma that all utterances other than statements of fact ... are literally meaningless (London Times).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a person who has a system of philosophy. <BR> <I>Ex. Plato, the great Greek philosopher wrote of many of his theories of government in "The Republic."</I> <DD><B> 3a. </B>a person who is calm and reasonable under hard conditions, accepting life and making the best of it. <BR> <I>Ex. There was never yet philosopher That could endure the toothache patiently (Shakespeare).</I> <DD><B> b. </B>a person who is guided in his life by principles which relate to man as a rational and social being. <BR> <I>Ex. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom, as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust (Thoreau).</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>(Obsolete.) <DD><B> a. </B>an alchemist. <DD><B> b. </B>an expert in some other occult science. </DL>
<A NAME="philosophersstone">
<B>philosophers' stone,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a substance believed by alchemists to have the power to change baser metals into gold or silver. It had, according to some, the power of prolonging life indefinitely and of curing all wounds and diseases. </DL>
<A NAME="philosophic">
<B>philosophic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>of philosophy or philosophers. <BR> <I>Ex. Some scientian prejudices need superseding when applied without discrimination to problems essentially philosophic (A. T. Macqueen).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>knowing much about philosophy. <DD><B> 3. </B>devoted to philosophy. <DD><B> 4. </B>wise, calm, and reasonable. <BR> <I>Ex. to be philosophic in defeat. They were mostly scholarly, quiet men, of calm and philosophic temperament (Harriet Beecher Stowe).</I> adv. <B>philosophically.</B> </DL>
<B>philosophism, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the affectation of philosophy, especially sophistry. <DD><B> 2. </B>a sophism. </DL>
<A NAME="philosophist">
<B>philosophist, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who philosophizes or speculates erroneously. </DL>
<A NAME="philosophize">
<B>philosophize, </B>verb, <B>-phized,</B> <B>-phizing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.i. </I> to think or reason as a philosopher does; try to understand and explain things. <BR> <I>Ex. to philosophize about life, death, mind, matter, and God.</I> <DD><I>v.t. </I> to explain or treat philosophically. noun <B>philosophizer.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="philosophy">
<B>philosophy, </B>noun, pl. <B>-phies.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the study of the truth or principles of all real knowledge; study of the most general causes and principles of the universe. <BR> <I>Ex. I regard philosophy then ... as the study which takes all knowledge for its province (Henry Sidgwick).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>an explanation or theory of the universe, especially the particular explanation or system of a philosopher. <BR> <I>Ex. the philosophy of Plato.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>a system for guiding life, such as a body of principles of conduct, religious beliefs, or traditions. <BR> <I>Ex. the philosophy of a New England Puritan.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>the broad general principles of a particular subject or field of activity. <BR> <I>Ex. the philosophy of history, the army's military philosophy, a design philosophy for aircraft.</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>a calm and reasonable attitude; accepting things as they are and making the best of them; calmness. <BR> <I>Ex. That teacher has a good philosophy about children and so never gets upset.</I> <DD><B> 6. </B>(originally) the love or pursuit of wisdom, in its broadest sense. </DL>
<A NAME="philsoc">
<B>Phil. Soc.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>Philological Society (of London). <DD><B> 2. </B>Philosophical Society (of America). </DL>
<A NAME="philter">
<B>philter</B> or <B>philtre, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a drug or magic potion which is supposed to make a person fall in love; love potion. <BR> <I>Ex. He is a veritable necromancer, equipped with philters and elixirs of wondrous potency (Harper's).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a drug or potion to produce some magical effect. <BR> <I>Ex. Tell me now, fairy ... can't you give me a charm, or a philtre, or something of that sort, to make me a handsome man? (Charlotte Bronte).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="philtrans">
<B>Phil. Trans.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> Philosophical Transactions (of the Royal Society of London). </DL>
<A NAME="philtrum">
<B>philtrum, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the vertical groove on the outside of the upper lip, between the mouth and the nose. </DL>
<A NAME="phimeson">
<B>phi meson,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a highly unstable and short-lived elementary particle with a large mass and zero charge. </DL>
<A NAME="phimosis">
<B>phimosis, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> contraction of the orifice of the prepuce, so that it cannot be retracted. </DL>
<A NAME="phineus">
<B>Phineus, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Greek Legend.) the blind king of Thrace who guided the Argonauts through the dangerous clashing rocks by sending a dove before them. </DL>
