semiosis

[ see-mee-oh-sis, sem-ee-, see-mahy- ]

noun

, Semiotics.

1. the process of connecting a sign, the particular use of that sign, and the specific meaning the observer associates with that sign, such as when someone sees a red light as an instruction to stop, or reads the word tree and thinks of a tree.

Word History and Origins

Origin of semiosis¹

First recorded in 1905–10; introduced by U.S. philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce; from Greek sēmeíōsis “sign”

Example Sentences

The heptapods from Arrival, unhumanoid, unearthlike, so strange they shatter and reform the human heroine’s brain; Stevland from Sue Burke’s novel Semiosis, a sentient plant who finds ways to communicate with, and strugglingly understand, the human colonists who’ve come to live on his planet; Octavia Butler’s Oankali, creepily gray and tentacled, familiar enough for the human protagonist of her Xenogenesis trilogy to speak with and love, but eventually irrevocably alien in their morals and worldview.

From Slate

In Semiosis, we learn that the Glassmakers, a somewhat insect-like species, had landed on Pax long before the human colonists.

From The Verge

Later this year, Burke will publish a sequel to Semiosis, Interference, which builds on those questions.

From The Verge

In Semiosis, an expedition from Earth crash-lands on a distant world called Pax.

From The Verge

One of my favorite novels from last year was Sue Burke’s debut, Semiosis, which dealt with a fundamental issue when it comes to meeting aliens for the first time: how do you recognize intelligence, and once you do, how do you coexist with extraterrestrial life that is widely different from us?

From The Verge