SCIENCES
Noun
sciences
plural of science
Noun
sciences
All the fields of science, collectively.
Verb
sciences
Third-person singular simple present indicative form of science
Source: Wiktionary
SCIENCE
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