mechanistic
adjective
mech·a·nis·tic
| \ ˌme-kə-ˈni-stik
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Definition of mechanistic
1
: mechanically determined
2
: of or relating to a mechanism or the doctrine of mechanism
3
: mechanical
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Other Words from mechanistic
mechanistically
\ ˌme-kə-ˈni-sti-k(ə-)lē
\
adverb
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adverb
Examples of mechanistic in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Under all the cool mechanistic excellence, that’s the core of Brady’s palpable ferocity, his insistent curiosity about training methods, his determination to find the last limit, and thoroughly exhausted himself. — Sally Jenkins, courant.com, "How does Tom Brady do it? It starts with science and ends with something less precise," 5 Aug. 2019 In a paper recently published in Science, Groves and his colleagues filled in some of the mechanistic blanks. — Quanta Magazine, "Immune Cells Measure Time to Identify Foreign Proteins," 3 June 2019 And in fact, the researchers still don’t have a mechanistic explanation. — Quanta Magazine, "How Many Genes Do Cells Need? Maybe Almost All of Them," 19 Apr. 2018 In both cases, ecorithms describe adaptive behavior in a mechanistic way. — Quanta Magazine, "Searching for the Algorithms Underlying Life," 28 Jan. 2016 Yet despite their lack of mechanistic understanding, these individuals showed leaps of ingenuity no less startling than those of today’s physicians and genome rewriters. — Adrian Woolfson, WSJ, "‘The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth’ Review: Desperate Remedies," 12 Dec. 2018 Francis Bacon’s emphasis on direct observation and Descartes’ mechanistic theories had challenged not only the authority of the ancients but also the existence of God. — Jenny Uglow, WSJ, "‘The Wonderful Mr. Willughby’ Review: Hatching a New Science," 5 July 2018 But over the past few weeks, the murmur of Ocean Beach has been cut with a low mechanistic rumble. — Matt Simon, WIRED, "Want to Fight Sea Level Rise? Look to San Francisco’s Ocean Beach," 11 Apr. 2018 As much as people want the rules for commas to be ironclad, no mechanistic rules can substitute for slow proofreading and redrafting, or even better, a good editor. — The Economist, "The power of the comma," 21 Sep. 2017These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'mechanistic.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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