uniformitarian

[ yoo-nuh-fawr-mi-tair-ee-uhn ]

adjective

1. supporting, conforming to, or derived from a theory or doctrine about uniformity, especially on the subject of geology.
2. Geology. of or relating to the thesis that processes that operated in the remote geological past are not different from those observed now.

noun

1. a person who accepts or supports a uniformitarian theory.

Other Words From

• uni·formi·tari·an·ism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of uniformitarian¹

First recorded in 1830–40; uniformit(y) + -arian

Example Sentences

Hancock's plaint is that mainstream science is stuck in a uniformitarian model of slow, gradual change and so cannot accept a catastrophic explanation.

From Scientific American

The address began with a protest against the old uniformitarian view of geological changes as expressed by Playfair in his Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory.

From Project Gutenberg

It is logical to use these proportions as prior probabilities by making a uniformitarian assumption that they were similar in the Mesozoic.

From Science Magazine

It was slowly digesting Lyell's 'Principles of Geology,' in which the old cataclysmic theories were featly demolished, and the uniformitarian conception of a past gradually and insensibly merging into the present was conclusively established.

From Project Gutenberg

The advent of modified uniformitarian principles all but banished the word catastrophe from science, and marked the birth of Geology as we know it now.

From Project Gutenberg