SPENCER

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IPA (US):

• SPENCER (noun)
  The noun SPENCER has 1 sense:

1. English philosopher and sociologist who applied the theory of natural selection to human societies (1820-1903)

  Familiarity information: SPENCER used as a noun is very rare.

• SPENCER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

English philosopher and sociologist who applied the theory of natural selection to human societies (1820-1903)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Herbert Spencer; Spencer

Instance hypernyms:

philosopher (a specialist in philosophy)

sociologist (a social scientist who studies the institutions and development of human society)

 Context examples 

The fact that Spencer was very little read was for some time a source of surprise to Martin.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“Spencer!” I cried. “Have you read him?”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Several researchers, including Alton Spencer, a high school student working with members of the TESS team, identified the error.

(NASA Planet Hunter Finds Earth-Size Habitable-Zone World, NASA)

She is a little girl, in a spencer, with a round face and curly flaxen hair.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The Duke of York tells me of the Army in the morning, and Lord Spencer chats with me of the Navy in the afternoon, and Dundas whispers me what is going forward in the Cabinet, so that I have little need of the Times or the Morning Chronicle.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For it is not five minutes since I received Mrs. Cole's note—no, it cannot be more than five—or at least ten—for I had got my bonnet and spencer on, just ready to come out—I was only gone down to speak to Patty again about the pork—Jane was standing in the passage—were not you, Jane? —for my mother was so afraid that we had not any salting-pan large enough.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

In many ways, this is similar to what happened in the Mississippi River Basin 100 years ago, and in the Amazon more recently, said study author Rob Spencer of FSU's Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science.

(Tropical soil disturbance could be hidden source of carbon dioxide, National Science Foundation)

Because Spencer is taking him somewhere.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He nodded his head. “Oh, yes, I remember it now. I ran across it in Spencer.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I suppose you'll be telling me next that you read Spencer on her recommendation—only you didn't.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)