"Phenomenon" is formal, very common, and often very positive in tone.

It's great for gushing in excitement as you describe how amazing something is: "Ms. Rice, a literary phenomenon" (Washington Post).

And it's just as great for striking a serious, scientific tone as you discuss any kind of natural, technological, or mysterious routine, process, or event: "Most deep-sea animals produce some bioluminescent light, but the phenomenon isn't relegated to the deep" (Smithsonian); "Generations of physicists had thought about phenomena such as force, acceleration, mass, and velocity" (Siddhartha Mukherjee).

Finally, "phenomenon" makes a great substitute for "trend," "occurrence," and "condition," especially when you're emphasizing its position in time or place: "This is a new phenomenon;" "It was a 1970's phenomenon;" "This isn't just a local phenomenon;" "It grew into a global phenomenon."

"I think that in discussions of physical problems we ought to begin not from the authority of scriptural passages but from sense experiences and necessary demonstrations; for the holy Bible and the phenomena of nature proceed alike from the divine Word."
   — Galileo Galilei, Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany, 1615; as cited in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, 1957

"Sir Patrick Moore announced on his show that something extraordinary was getting ready to happen... the Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect. Moore told viewers that they could experience the phenomenon by jumping in the air at the exact moment the alignment occurred. If they did, they would feel weightless, like they were floating... It was an April Fool's joke."
   — Jennifer Niven, All the Bright Places, 2015

"He coaxed a phenomenal amount of work out of his rigid body, laboring so hard over his horses through the week that he had to sleep straight through Sunday to recover."
   — Laura Hillenbrand, Seabiscuit: An American Legend, 1999

has this page helped you understand "phenomenon"?

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If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "phenomenon" without saying "an incredible event" or "an amazing person."

try it out:

Let's use a ranking system: a scale from zero (terrible, abysmal) to ten (wonderful,  phenomenal).

Talk about a meal, a show, a book, or a song that you'd rank as a ten, phenomenal. What made it so incredibly awesome, so amazing, or so extraordinary?

If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.)

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "Clues in Cobbled Haikus."

Check out the haiku, cobbled together from the work of a famous writer, and see if you can identify the term it's suggesting. 

Try this one today:

Cobbled from the work of a team of songwriters (Thomas Bangalter, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Pharrell Williams, and Nile Rodgers), the haiku below suggests which of the following terms: carte blanche, nuit blanche, or transmogrify?

  Raise cups to the stars
  She's up all night 'til the sun
  All night, up all night

To see the answer, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. Near opposites of PHENOMENAL include

A. NEW and FRESH.
B. DULL and ORDINARY.
C. OBSERVED and NOTATED.

2. Examples of celestial _____ include _____.

A. phenomenons .. moons, stars, and planets
B. phenomena .. meteor showers and the phases of the moon
C. phenomenia .. black holes, asteroid belts, and the time-space continuum

Answers to the review questions: 1. B 2. B Answer to the game question: The cobbled haiku suggests the term nuit blanche.

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog: On vocabulary...       36 ways to study words.       Why we forget words, & how to remember them.       How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. On writing...       How to improve any sentence.       How to motivate our kids to write.       How to stop procrastinating and start writing.       How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count. From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.