Meanings
comparative more ontic · superlative most ontic
- Pertaining to being, as opposed to pertaining to a theory of it (which would be ontological).
My descriptions are ontical—addressing the world we inhabit, the what and where and how and why of objects therein; my questions are not ontological in the sense of struggling (vainly) to answer the question of the being of things tout court.
2015, Bill Brown, Other Things, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN
Origin
- Ancient Greekὄν“being, existing, essence”
- Englishontic
From Ancient Greek ὄν (ón, “being, existing, essence”) (stem ὄντ- (ónt-)) + -ic.
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans onties
- ontiespertaining to being
Catalan òntic
- ònticpertaining to being
French ontique
- ontiquepertaining to being
German ontisch
- ontischpertaining to being
Japanese 存在的
- 存在的pertaining to being
Norwegian ontisk
- ontiskpertaining to being
Portuguese ôntico
- ônticopertaining to being
Russian онти́ческий
- онти́ческий (ontíčeskij)pertaining to being
Spanish óntico
- ónticopertaining to being
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
ontic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ontic
“ontic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ontic. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ontic,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ontic.
Source: ontic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.