A philosophical or scientific belief that all things are made up of basic elements or fundamental components.
From 'elemental' (relating to elements) + '-ism' (a doctrine or system of beliefs). This terminology emerged during the Renaissance when natural philosophers were debating how matter was fundamentally composed.
Ancient elementalism claimed everything came from four elements (earth, water, air, fire), but modern elementalism in chemistry points to the periodic table's 118 elements—showing how the same basic idea gets refined as science progresses.
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