SCIENCE

skill, science

(noun) ability to produce solutions in some problem domain; “the skill of a well-trained boxer”; “the sweet science of pugilism”

science, scientific discipline

(noun) a particular branch of scientific knowledge; “the science of genetics”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology 1

Noun

science (countable and uncountable, plural sciences)

(countable) A particular discipline or branch of learning, especially one dealing with measurable or systematic principles rather than intuition or natural ability. [from 14th c.]

Specifically the natural sciences.

(uncountable, archaic) Knowledge gained through study or practice; mastery of a particular discipline or area. [from 14th c.]

(now, only theology) The fact of knowing something; knowledge or understanding of a truth. [from 14th c.]

(uncountable) The collective discipline of study or learning acquired through the scientific method; the sum of knowledge gained from such methods and discipline. [from 18th c.]

(uncountable) Knowledge derived from scientific disciplines, scientific method, or any systematic effort.

(uncountable, collective) The scientific community.

(euphemism, with definite article) synonym of sweet science

Usage notes

Since the middle of the 20th century, in English – but not in German – the term science was normally used to indicate the natural sciences (e.g, chemistry), the social sciences (e.g, sociology), and the formal sciences (e.g, mathematics). In the 18th and 19th centuries, the term was broader and encompassed scholarly study of the humanities (e.g, grammar) and the arts (e.g, music).

Coordinate terms

• art

Synonyms

• sci

• sci.

Hyponyms

• agriscience

• antiscience

• applied science

• archival science

• behavioral science

• bionanoscience

• bioscience

• citizen science

• cognitive science

• computer science

• crank science

• creation science

• cyberscience

• data science

• dismal science

• Earth science

• environmental science

• ethnoscience

• exact science

• forensic science

• formal science

• fundamental science

• geoscience

• geroscience

• glycoscience

• hard science

• information science

• junk science

• library science

• life science

• marine science

• nanoscience

• natural science

• neuroscience

• palaeoscience

• photoscience

• physical science

• planetary science

• political science

• popular science

• proscience

• protoscience

• pseudoscience

• pure science

• rocket science

• social science

• soft science

• soil science

• space science

• structural science

• superscience

• sweet science

• systems science

• technoscience

Verb

science (third-person singular simple present sciences, present participle sciencing, simple past and past participle scienced)

(transitive, dated) To cause to become versed in science; to make skilled; to instruct.

(transitive, colloquial, humorous) To use science to solve a problem.

Etymology 2

Noun

science

Obsolete spelling of scion.

Source: Wiktionary


Sci"ence, n. Etym: [F., fr. L. scientia, fr. sciens, -entis, p.pr. of scire to know. Cf. Conscience, Conscious, Nice.]

1. Knowledge; lnowledge of principles and causes; ascertained truth of facts. If we conceive God's or science, before the creation, to be extended to all and every part of the world, seeing everything as it is, . . . his science or sight from all eternity lays no necessity on anything to come to pass. Hammond. Shakespeare's deep and accurate science in mental philosophy. Coleridge.

2. Accumulated and established knowledge, which has been systematized and formulated with reference to the discovery of general truths or the operation of general laws; knowledge classified and made available in work, life, or the search for truth; comprehensive, profound, or philosophical knowledge. All this new science that men lere [teach]. Chaucer. Science is . . . a complement of cognitions, having, in point of form, the character of logical perfection, and in point of matter, the character of real truth. Sir W. Hamilton.

3. Especially, such knowledge when it relates to the physical world and its phenomena, the nature, constitution, and forces of matter, the qualities and function of living tissues, etc.; -- called also natural science, and physical science. Voltaire hardly left a single corner of the field entirely unexplored in science, poetry, history, philosophy. J. Morley.

4. Any branch or departament of systematized knowledge considered as a distinct field of investigation or object of study; as, the science of astronomy, of chemistry, or of mind.

Note: The ancients reckoned seven sciences, namely, grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy; -- the first three being included in the Trivium, the remaining four in the Quadrivium. Good sense, which only is the gift of Heaven, And though no science, fairly worth the seven. Pope.

5. Art, skill, or expertness, regarded as the result of knowledge of laws and principles. His science, coolness, and great strength. G. A. Lawrence.

Note: Science is applied or pure. Applied science is a knowledge of facts, events, or phenomena, as explained, accounted for, or produced, by means of powers, causes, or laws. Pure science is the knowledge of these powers, causes, or laws, considered apart, or as pure from all applications. Both these terms have a similar and special signification when applied to the science of quantity; as, the applied and pure mathematics. Exact science is knowledge so systematized that prediction and verification, by measurement, experiment, observation, etc., are possible. The mathematical and physical sciences are called the exact sciences. Comparative sciences, Inductive sciences. See under Comparative, and Inductive.

Syn.

– Literature; art; knowledge.

– Science, Literature, Art. Science is literally knowledge, but more usually denotes a systematic and orderly arrangement of knowledge. In a more distinctive sense, science embraces those branches of knowledge of which the subject-matter is either ultimate principles, or facts as explained by principles or laws thus arranged in natural order. The term literature sometimes denotes all compositions not embraced under science, but usually confined to the belles-lettres. [See Literature.] Art is that which depends on practice and skill in performance. "In science, scimus ut sciamus; in art, scimus ut producamus. And, therefore, science and art may be said to be investigations of truth; but one, science, inquires for the sake of knowledge; the other, art, for the sake of production; and hence science is more concerned with the higher truths, art with the lower; and science never is engaged, as art is, in productive application. And the most perfect state of science, therefore, will be the most high and accurate inquiry; the perfection of art will be the most apt and efficient system of rules; art always throwing itself into the form of rules." Karslake.

Sci"ence, v. t.

Definition: To cause to become versed in science; to make skilled; to instruct. [R.] Francis.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

23 November 2024

THEORETICAL

(adjective) concerned primarily with theories or hypotheses rather than practical considerations; “theoretical science”


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Coffee Trivia

The Boston Tea Party helped popularize coffee in America. The hefty tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773 resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. In the lead up to the Revolutionary War, it became patriotic to sip java instead of tea. The Civil War made the drink more pervasive. Coffee helped energize tired troops, and drinking it became an expression of freedom.

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