Adjacent Words

Science definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SCI'ENCE, n. [L. scientia, from scio, to know.]
1. In a general sense, knowledge, or certain knowledge; the comprehension or understanding of truth or facts by the mind. The science of God must be perfect.
2. In philosophy, a collection of the general principles or leading truths relating to any subject. Pure science, as the mathematics, is built on self-evident truths; but the term science is also applied to other subjects founded on generally acknowledged truths, as metaphysics; or on experiment and observation, as chimistry and natural philosophy; or even to an assemblage of the general principles of an art, as the science of agriculture; the science of navigation. Arts relate to practice, as painting and sculpture.
A principle in science is a rule in art.
3. Art derived from precepts or built on principles.
Science perfects genius.
4. Any art or species of knowledge.
No science doth make known the first principles on which it buildeth.
5. One of the seven liberal branches of knowledge, viz grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music.
[Note - Authors have not always been careful to use the terms art and science with due discrimination and precision. Music is an art as well as a science. In general, an art is that which depends on practice or performance, and science that which depends on abstract or speculative principles. The theory of music is a science; the practice of it an art.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a particular branch of scientific knowledge; "the science of genetics" [syn: science, scientific discipline]
2: ability to produce solutions in some problem domain; "the skill of a well-trained boxer"; "the sweet science of pugilism" [syn: skill, science]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin scientia, from scient-, sciens having knowledge, from present participle of scire to know; perhaps akin to Sanskrit chyati he cuts off, Latin scindere to split — more at shed Date: 14th century 1. the state of knowing ; knowledge as distinguished from ignorance or misunderstanding 2. a. a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study <the science of theology> b. something (as a sport or technique) that may be studied or learned like systematized knowledge <have it down to a science> 3. a. knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method b. such knowledge or such a system of knowledge concerned with the physical world and its phenomena ; natural science 4. a system or method reconciling practical ends with scientific laws <cooking is both a science and an art> 5. capitalized Christian Science

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a branch of knowledge conducted on objective principles involving the systematized observation of and experiment with phenomena, esp. concerned with the material and functions of the physical universe (see also natural science). 2 a systematic and formulated knowledge, esp. of a specified type or on a specified subject (political science). b the pursuit or principles of this. 3 an organized body of knowledge on a subject (the science of philology). 4 skilful technique rather than strength or natural ability. 5 archaic knowledge of any kind. Phrases and idioms: science fiction fiction based on imagined future scientific discoveries or environmental changes, frequently dealing with space travel, life on other planets, etc. science park an area devoted to scientific research or the development of science-based industries. Etymology: ME f. OF f. L scientia f. scire know

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Science Sci"ence, n. [F., fr. L. scientia, fr. sciens, -entis, p. pr. of scire to know. Cf. Conscience, Conscious, Nice.] 1. Knowledge; knowledge of principles and causes; ascertained truth of facts. If we conceive God's sight 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 functions 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 department 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. Usage: 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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Science Sci"ence, v. t. To cause to become versed in science; to make skilled; to instruct. [R.] --Francis.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(sciences) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. Science is the study of the nature and behaviour of natural things and the knowledge that we obtain about them. The best discoveries in science are very simple. ...science and technology. 2. A science is a particular branch of science such as physics, chemistry, or biology. Physics is the best example of a science which has developed strong, abstract theories. N-COUNT: usu with supp 3. A science is the study of some aspect of human behaviour, for example sociology or anthropology. ...the modern science of psychology. N-COUNT: usu with supp 4. see also domestic science, exact science, Master of Science, political science, social science

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

si'-ens: This word as found in the King James Version means simply "knowledge." "Science" occurs in the King James Version only in two places, Da 1:4, "children .... understanding science" (yodhe`edha`ath, "those who understand science"). The meaning of the term here is "knowledge," "wisdom." The only other occurrence of "science" is in the New Testament (1Ti 6:20, "avoiding .... oppositions of science falsely so called," tes pseudonumou gnoseos, "the falsely called gnosis"). "Science" is the translation of the Greek gnosis, which in the New Testament is usually rendered "knowledge." The science here referred to was a higher knowledge of Christian and divine things, which false teachers alleged that they possessed, and of which they boasted. It was an incipient form of Gnosticism, and it prevailed to a considerable extent in the churches of proconsular Asia, e.g. in Colosse and Ephesus. Timothy is put on his guard against the teaching of this gnosis falsely so called, for it set itself in opposition to the gospel.

See GNOSTICISM.

"Science" in the modern sense of the word, as the discovery and orderly classification and exposition of the phenomena and of the laws of Nature, is not found either in the Old Testament or the New Testament unless the passage in Daniel be interpreted as meaning the scientific knowledge which the learned men of Babylon possessed of mathematics and astronomy, etc. See also Ac 7:22. To the Hebrew mind all natural phenomena meant the working of the hand of God in the world, directly and immediately, without the intervention of any secondary laws.

John Rutherfurd

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Knowledge, information, learning. 2. System of knowledge, body of knowledge, philosophical knowledge, knowledge of principles or general laws. 3. Branch of knowledge.

Moby Thesaurus

academic discipline, academic specialty, applied science, area, arena, art, body of knowledge, branch, concern, craft, department of knowledge, discipline, domain, electrobiology, electrochemistry, electrokinetics, electromechanics, electrometallurgy, electrometry, electronics, electrooptics, electrophysics, electrostatics, electrotechnics, electrotechnology, erudition, expertise, field, field of inquiry, field of study, galvanism, information, knowledge, learning, lore, magnetics, mechanics, mechanism, method, natural science, ology, proficiency, province, pure science, realm, scholarship, skill, social science, specialty, sphere, study, subject, system, technic, technical know-how, technical knowledge, technical skill, technicology, technics, technique, technology, thermionics, wisdom