hypostasis

[ hahy-pos-tuh-sis, hi- ]

noun,plural hy·pos·ta·ses [hahy-pos-tuh-seez, hi-]. /haɪˈpɒs təˌsiz, hɪ-/.
  1. Metaphysics.

    • something that stands under and supports; foundation.

    • the underlying or essential part of anything as distinguished from attributes; substance, essence, or essential principle.

  2. Theology.

    • one of the three real and distinct substances in the one undivided substance or essence of God.

    • a person of the Trinity.

    • the one personality of Christ in which His two natures, human and divine, are united.

  1. Medicine/Medical.

    • the accumulation of blood or its solid components in parts of an organ or body due to poor circulation.

    • such sedimentation, as in a test tube.

Origin of hypostasis

1
1580–90; <Late Latin <Greek hypóstasis that which settles at the bottom; substance, nature, essence, equivalent to hypo-hypo- + stásis standing, stasis

Words Nearby hypostasis

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use hypostasis in a sentence

  • In Plotinus it is the first stage in the unfoldment of the Godhead, and is a distinct hypostasis, though not a person.

  • It is rather a potential human individual, a nature not yet developed into a person or hypostasis.

  • The consequences of a hypostasis of the good are no less interesting than its causes.

    Winds Of Doctrine | George Santayana
  • This involved, of course, its hypostasis as the metaphysical reality of supreme importance.

    Creative Intelligence | John Dewey, Addison W. Moore, Harold Chapman Brown, George H. Mead, Boyd H. Bode, Henry Waldgrave, Stuart James, Hayden Tufts, Horace M. Kallen
  • Evil is here said to be a hypostasis in itself, and imparts evil qualities to other things.

    Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 4 | Plotinos (Plotinus)

British Dictionary definitions for hypostasis

hypostasis

/ (haɪˈpɒstəsɪs) /


nounplural -ses (-ˌsiːz)
  1. metaphysics the essential nature of a substance as opposed to its attributes

  2. Christianity

    • any of the three persons of the Godhead, together constituting the Trinity

    • the one person of Christ in which the divine and human natures are united

  1. the accumulation of blood in an organ or part, under the influence of gravity as the result of poor circulation

  2. another name for epistasis (def. 3)

Origin of hypostasis

1
C16: from Late Latin: substance, from Greek hupostasis foundation, from huphistasthai to stand under, from hypo- + histanai to cause to stand

Derived forms of hypostasis

  • hypostatic (ˌhaɪpəˈstætɪk) or hypostatical, adjective
  • hypostatically, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012