teleological -- Hayden

tel·e·ol·o·gy  (tl-l-j, tl-) n. pl. tel·e·ol·o·gies 1. The study of design or purpose in natural phenomena. 2. The use of ultimate purpose or design as a means of explaining phenomena. 3. Belief in or the perception of purposeful development toward an end, as in nature or history. [Greek teleios, teleos, perfect, complete (from telos, end, result; see kwel-1 in Indo-European roots) + -logy.] tele·o·logi·cal (--lj-kl), tele·o·logic (-k) adj. tele·o·logi·cal·ly adv. tele·olo·gist n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published byHoughton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Hayden is interested in math and science and may one day be a teleological student of the upper Yellowstone RIver that his ancestor Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden explored in the 1800s.