teleo-, tel-, telo-

Relating to or believing in autotelism; being an end in itself.

1. The study of apparently useless organs or parts.
2. A lack of purposefulness, or of a contribution to the final result.
3. The doctrine of purposelessness or of the absence of a final cause.

Of or pertaining to evolution at a rate standard for a given group of plants or animals.

1. An object believed to give magical powers to someone who carries or wears it; for example, a stone or jewel.
2. An object marked with magic signs and believed to confer on its bearer supernatural powers or protection.
3. Anything whose presence exercises a remarkable or powerful influence on human feelings or actions.
4. A stone, ring, or other object, engraved with figures, or characters, that are supposed to possess occult powers and which is worn as a charm or an amulet (object that is supposed to provide protection against bad luck or negative forces).
5. Etymology: from French talisman, in part via Arabic tilsam, plural form, tilsaman, a Greek loan-word; in part directly from Byzantine Greek telesma, "talisman, religious rite, payment"; earlier "consecration, ceremony"; originally, "completion", from telein, "to perform (religious rites), to pay (tax), to fulfill"; from telos, "completion, end, tax".

1. The study of design, ultimate causes, or purposes in natural phenomena.
2. The use of an 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.
4. An activity that tends toward, or strives for, the achievement of a goal.

A reference to a mature feather as distinguished from a neossoptile or downy feather of a newly hatched bird.