cosmology

plural cosmologies

1. countableuncountableThe study of the physical universe, its structure, dynamics, origin and evolution, and fate.

   Meronym: cosmogony

   1 more example

   We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.

   2012 January 28, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 14 Nov 2012, page 23

2. countableuncountableA metaphysical study into the origin and nature of the universe.

   Meronym: cosmogony

3. countableuncountableA particular view (cultural or religious) of the structure and origin of the universe.

   Meronym: cosmogony

   2 more examples

   Near-synonyms: cosmovision, worldview

   But the work of Marshack and Leroi-Gourhan enable us to see that these later religions of the civilized period are elaborations of the cosmologies from the universal religion of the Upper Paleolithic.

   1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 130

   Synonyms: cosmovision, worldview