Meanings
plural incars
- metaphysicshuman sciencesA car completely inside of a garage, or the portion of a car that is inside a garage.
For example, incars are things ordinary folks have never dreamed of.
2015, Thomas Satting, The Double Lives of Objects: An Essay in the Metaphysics of the Ordinary World, →ISBN, page 254 more examples
This is not to deny that we might initially be sceptical of the existence of objects like the outcars and incars entertained by Eli Hirsch, objects that grow and shrink as a car leaves its garage. But we don’t think it ridiculous that there are objects that grow and shrink as large rocks move underwater […] It seems clear that none but the most insular metaphysician should countenance islands while repudiating incars.
2006, John Hawthorne, Metaphysical Essays, →ISBN, page viiIt is natural to claim that there are no such things as incars and outcars. We cannot just stipulate such things as incars and outcars into existence.
2017, André Gallois, The Metaphysics of Identity, →ISBN, page 177A thinks that werewolves exist; B doesn’t; A thinks incars and outcars exist, but not cars; B thinks vice versa; A thinks ordinary objects exist, but not mereological sums of them; B thinks both exist.
2020, Jody Azzouni, “Defending the Existence of Ordinary Existence Questions and Debates”, in Ricki Bliss, J.T.M. Miller, editors, The Routledge Handbook of Metametaphysics, →ISBNThese reflections help us with some other purportedly absurd objects that Eklund mentions in order to embarrass the neo-Fregean, such as incars and xhearts/xlivers.
2020, Richard Gaskin, Language and World: A Defence of Linguistic Idealism, →ISBN
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
Coined by American philosopher Eli Hirsch in 1982 in The Concept of Identity, formed by in- + car.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
incar. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incar
“incar.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incar. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “incar,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incar.
Source: incar on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.