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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Phenomenon \Phe*nom"e*non\, noun; pl. {Phenomena}. [L. phaenomenon, Gr. faino'menon, fr. fai'nesqai to appear, fai'nein to show. See {Phantom}.]
1. An appearance; anything visible; whatever, in matter or spirit, is apparent to, or is apprehended by, observation; as, the phenomena of heat, light, or electricity; phenomena of imagination or memory.
In the phenomena of the material world, and in many of the phenomena of mind. --Stewart.
2. That which strikes one as strange, unusual, or unaccountable; an extraordinary or very remarkable person, thing, or occurrence; as, a musical phenomenon.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
phenomenon
noun
1: any state or process known through the senses rather than by intuition or reasoning
2: a remarkable development [also: {phenomena} (pl)]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
58 Moby Thesaurus words for "phenomenon": abnormality, actuality, adventure, amazement, anomaly, apparition, appearance, astonishing thing, astonishment, circumstance, curiosity, episode, event, exception, experience, fact, false image, figure, form, gazingstock, hap, happening, happenstance, image, incident, marvel, marvelment, matter of fact, miracle, mirage, nonesuch, occasion, occurrence, paradox, particular, peculiarity, phantom, phasm, portent, presence, prodigy, quite a thing, rarity, reality, sensation, shape, sight, singularity, something else, spectacle, stunner, turn of events, uniqueness, unusualness, vision, wonder, wonderful thing, wonderment
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