Great Filter

proper noun

A barrier which prevents intelligent life from developing to a level where it can be detected across interstellar distances.

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Meanings

proper nounthe Great Filter
  1. A barrier which prevents intelligent life from developing to a level where it can be detected across interstellar distances.
    1 more example

    Well, maybe that means that there is — the term, I think it’s from the economist Robin Hanson — that there’s a great filter. That basically, it’s so hard to become a multiplanetary species that even though life is everywhere, every species gets stuck somewhere around where we are: Achieving some things, and then never getting off our initial planet.

    2026 February 26, Ross Douthat, “The New Space Race”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  2. The hypothesis that such a barrier exists.

    While there are plenty of potential explanations and counterarguments for the Fermi paradox, one that has grabbed a lot of attention is known as the Great Filter - the idea that there is some sort of filter that prevents a civilization from becoming advanced enough to traverse the galaxy.

    2024 March 18, “Exploring the SCP Foundation: SCP-3426 - Reckoner” (0:50 from the start), in The Exploring Series, archived from the original on 30 Mar 2024

Origin

Coined by American economist Robin Hanson in 1996.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

French grand filtre
  • grand filtreTranslations
Russian великий фильтр
  • великий фильтр (velikij filʹtr)Translations
Cite this entry
APA

Great Filter. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Great%20Filter

MLA

“Great Filter.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Great%20Filter. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Great Filter,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Great%20Filter.

Source: Great Filter on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.