cosmos means A city in Minnesota. It carries an Arena rating of 1648, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, cosmos ranks #2,336 of 14,297 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,356 of 14,297 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,592 of 14,423 for Most Sublime Words, #2,678 of 14,410 for Most Ponderous Words.
cosmos is pronounced /ˈkɒzmɒs/.
Why “cosmos” is a great word
The universe regarded as a harmonious and orderly system. From Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos, "order, arrangement; the ordered universe"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱens- ("to announce, proclaim; to put in order"). Unlike "universe," which merely tallies the totality of existence, or "chaos," its absolute antithesis, cosmos is the conviction that existence is arranged. It is the silent mathematics of orbital mechanics, the crystalline structure of a snowflake repeated across a field, and the spiral arms of a galaxy tracing a logarithmic curve—an ancient assertion that behind the noise, something holds.
Etymology
From Middle English cossmos (“the universe; the world”), borrowed from Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos, “order; universe; the earth, the world; decoration, ornament”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱens- (“to announce, proclaim; to put in order”).
The plural form cosmoi is a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κόσμοι (kósmoi).
noun
- The universe regarded as a system with harmony and order.“This doctrine [the nebular hypothesis] supposes all the material universe to have been once in a fluid or nebular condition, and that, by the operation of universal gravitation and the thousand other laws of nature, the nebular matter has been mainly aggregated into masses, and the existing cosmoi been developed.”
- The universe regarded as a system with harmony and order.; A harmonious, ordered whole.“This simple cell is a cosmos in this respect: it represents the laws of the universe in changes of matter, and clearly exemplifies their workings in the oral cavity.”
- Harmony, order.“He [Frederick I of Prussia] founded Universities, this poor King; University of Halle; Royal Academy of Berlin, [Gottfried Wilhelm] Leibniz presiding: he fought for Protestantism;—did what he could for the cause of Cosmos versus Chaos, after his fashion.”
- Any of various mostly Mexican herbs of the genus Cosmos having radiate heads of variously coloured flowers and pinnate leaves.“This beautiful plant was discovered in Mexico, before 1789; as seeds of it sent to Madrid produced plants, which blossomed in that year in the Royal Botanic Garden of Spain. It was first described and figured in 1797, by [Antonio José] Cavanilles, who called it Cosmos, from the Greek word Kosmos, beautiful; but this name was afterwards altered by [Carl Ludwig] Willdenow to Cosmea, as being more co”
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