Philosophies

How to spell philosophies

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce philosophies

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does philosophies mean?

1. nounDistinct systems of belief, principles, or attitudes that guide thought and conduct.

Philosophies in a sentence

• The two managers held very different philosophies about rewarding staff.

• The course compares the leading philosophies of ancient Greece and China.

Where does philosophies come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word descends from the ancient Greek philosophia, which literally meant 'love of wisdom', built from philein 'to love' and sophia 'wisdom'. Tradition credits the thinker Pythagoras with calling himself a philosophos, a 'lover of wisdom', rather than claiming to be wise outright. The term passed into Latin as philosophia and then travelled into English through Old French as philosophie during the 1300s, at first naming the study of fundamental truths and later broadening to mean any system of guiding beliefs. The modern plural emerged simply by treating each distinct system or outlook as a countable thing, so that one can speak of competing philosophies. The same soph root for 'wisdom' also gives us 'sophisticated' and the name 'Sophia', while the philo- element for 'loving' reappears in words like 'philanthropy'; remembering 'love of wisdom' keeps the tricky philo-soph spelling in order.

How the word is built

• philo- (loving)
• soph (wisdom)
• -y (noun-forming suffix)
• -es (plural, with y changing to ies)