Phrenology

Definition: Phrenology

Phrenology

Noun

1. A now abandoned study of the shape of skull as indicative of the strengths of different faculties.

Date "phrenology" was first used: 1816. (references)

Specialty Definitions: Phrenology

Domain	Definitions
Satire	PHRENOLOGY, n. The science of picking the pocket through the scalp. It consists in locating and exploiting the organ that one is a dupe with. Source: Devil's Dictionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Phrenology

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Phrenology is a pseudoscience, popular in the 19th century, that claimed to be able to determine personality traits and criminality on the basis of the shape of the head (reading "bumps"). It was developed by German physician Franz Joseph Gall around 1800.

Its principles were that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that mind has a set of different faculties, each particular faculty being represented in a different part of the brain. These areas are proportional to a given individual's propensities and importance of a mental faculty, and the overlying skull bone reflects these differences.

While in its day phrenology was an academically respected field of research, today it has been completely discredited.

Distinguish phrenology from the scientific study of skull shape (particularly the statistically varying proportions of length to width), once intensively practised in anthropology/ethnology and sometimes utilised by racist theorising.

External links

Phrenology. The History of Cerebral Localization. Article by Renato M.E. Sabbatini, PhD in Brain & Mind online article.
Examples of phrenological tools can be seen in The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Phrenology."

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Synonyms within Context: Phrenology

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Intellect	Metaphysics; psychics, psychology; ideology; mental philosophy, moral philosophy; philosophy of the mind; pneumatology, phrenology; craniology, cranioscopy.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Phrenology

English words defined with "phrenology": Organoscopy ♦ phrenological. (references)

Specialty definitions using "phrenology": Phrenology. (references)

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Modern Usage: Phrenology

Domain	Usage
Movie/TV Titles	With the Aid of Phrenology (1913)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Phrenology

Domain	Title
Books	A Measure of Perfection: Phrenology and the Fine Arts in America (Cultural Studies of the United States) (reference) Phrenology (reference) Phrenology in Europe and America (Eight Volume Set) (reference) Phrenology. (reference) The Book of Fortune-Telling: How to Tell Character and the Future by Palmistry, Cards, Numbers, Phrenology, Handwriting, Dreams, Astrology, Etc. (reference) (more book examples)

Theater & Movies	Phrenology - Revealing the Mysteries of the Mind (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music	Phrenology (Limited Edition w/ Bonus DVD) [LIMITED EDITION] (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Phrenology

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Photo Album: Phrenology

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	The Proper Study of Mankind is Man. : Phrenology Chart.Credit: National Library of Medicine.		Phrenology / Spurzheim Published by Dr. Calvin Preston.Credit: National Library of Medicine.
	Dr. Spurzheim--divisions of the organs of phrenology marked externally.Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Phrenology

"Phrenology" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Phrenology" is used about 22 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	22	74,468

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Phrenology

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day
phrenology	104
root phrenology	51
lyrics phrenology root	18
lyrics phrenology	10
phrenology head	5
lyrics phrenology root seed	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Phrenology

Language		Translations for "phrenology"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		frenologji. (various references)

Arabic		‏علم بفراسة الدماغ. (various references)

Bulgarian		френология. (various references)

Czech		frenologie. (various references)

French		phrénologie. (various references)

German		phrenologie. (various references)

Greek		κρανιολογία (craniology), φρενολογία. (various references)

Hungarian		frenológia. (various references)

Italian		frenologia. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		骨相学 , 骨相 (physique), 観相学 (physiognomy). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		かんそうがく (physiognomy), こっそうがく, こっそう (physique). (various references)

Korean		골상학. (various references)

Pig Latin		enologyphray

Portuguese		frenólogo. (various references)

Romanian		frenologie. (various references)

Russian		френология. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		frenologija. (various references)

Spanish		frenología. (various references)

Swedish		frenologi. (various references)

Turkish		kafatası bilimi, frenoloji. (various references)

Ukranian		френологія. (various references)

Vietnamese		khoa tướng số. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Phrenology

Language	Period	Translations
Greek	700 BCE-300 CE	phren. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Misspellings: Phrenology

Misspellings
	"Phrenology" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: frenology, phenology, phrenelogy, phrenogoly, phronology. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Phrenology"

Words rhyming with "phrenology" (pronounced 'Phre*nol"o*gy'): Aciurgy, Acology, Actinology, Adenology, Aerolithology, Aerology, Agnoiology, Agriology, Agrostology, Aitiology, Alethiology, Algology, Allotriophagy, Alogy, Amphibiology, Amphibology, Anagogy, Analogy, Anemology, Angelology, Angiology, Anthology, Anthropology, Anthropophagy, Antilogy, Apiology, Arachnology, Archaeology, Archelogy, Aretology, Aristology, Arteriology, Arthrology, Assyriology, Astrolithology, Astrology, Astrometeorology, Astrotheology, Atheology, Atmology, Atmospherology, Atomology, Autophagy, Bacteriology, Baggy, Balneology, Barology, Battology, Bibliology, Bibliopegy. (additional references)

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Anagrams: Phrenology

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: nephrology.
	Words within the letters "e-g-h-l-n-o-o-p-r-y"
	-1 letter: gynophore, phenology.
	-2 letters: hypergol, penology, prolonge, rheology.
	-3 letters: enology, gryphon, hyperon, leghorn, neology, orogeny, polygon, progeny, prolong, pronely, pyrogen.
	-4 letters: eryngo, gonoph, gooney, gopher, gorhen, groyne, holpen, hooper, longer, looney, looper, oogeny, openly, operon, orgone, phenol, phenyl, phoney, phooey, phylon, poleyn, poorly, proleg, prolog, pyrone.
	-5 letters: enrol, ephor, genro, glory, glyph, goner, gooey, goony, goopy.
	Words containing the letters "e-g-h-l-n-o-o-p-r-y"
	+3 letters: oropharyngeal.
	+4 letters: neuropathology.
	+5 letters: neurophysiology, neuropsychology.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.