a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws: the mathematical sciences.
2.
systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation.
3.
any of the branches of natural or physical science.
4.
systematized knowledge in general.
5.
knowledge, as of facts or principles; knowledge gained by systematic study.
6.
a particular branch of knowledge.
7.
skill, esp. reflecting a precise application of facts or principles; proficiency.
[Origin: 1300–50; ME < MF < L scientia knowledge, equiv. to scient- (s. of sciéns), prp. of scīre to know + -ia-ia]
The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.
Such activities restricted to a class of natural phenomena.
Such activities applied to an object of inquiry or study.
Methodological activity, discipline, or study: I've got packing a suitcase down to a science.
An activity that appears to require study and method: the science of purchasing.
Knowledge, especially that gained through experience.
Science Christian Science.
[Middle English, knowledge, learning, from Old French, from Latin scientia, from sciēns, scient-, present participle of scīre, to know; see skei- in Indo-European roots.]
c.1300, "knowledge (of something) acquired by study," also "a particular branch of knowledge," from O.Fr. science, from L. scientia "knowledge," from sciens (gen. scientis), prp. of scire "to know," probably originally "to separate one thing from another, to distinguish," related to scindere "to cut, divide," from PIE base *skei- (cf. Gk. skhizein "to split, rend, cleave," Goth. skaidan, O.E. sceadan "to divide, separate;" see shed (v.)). Modern sense of "non-arts studies" is attested from 1678. The distinction is commonly understood as between theoretical truth (Gk. episteme) and methods for effecting practical results (tekhne), but science sometimes is used for practical applications and art for applications of skill. Main modern (restricted) sense of "body of regular or methodical observations or propositions ... concerning any subject or speculation" is attested from 1725; in 17c.-18c. this concept commonly was called philosophy. To blind (someone) with science "confuse by the use of big words or complex explanations" is attested from 1937, originally noted as a phrase from Australia and New Zealand.
scienceAudio Help (sī'əns) Pronunciation Key
The investigation of natural phenomena through observation, theoretical explanation, and experimentation, or the knowledge produced by such investigation. ◇ Science makes use of the scientific method, which includes the careful observation of natural phenomena, the formulation of a hypothesis, the conducting of one or more experiments to test the hypothesis, and the drawing of a conclusion that confirms or modifies the hypothesis. See Note at hypothesis.
Main Entry: sci·ence Pronunciation: 'sI-&n(t)s Function: noun : knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of
general laws especially as obtained and tested through the scientific method and concerned with the physical world and its phenomena
Science Hill, KY (city, FIPS 68952) Location: 37.17602 N, 84.63640 W Population (1990): 628 (260 housing units) Area: 1.3 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 42553
Art\ ([aum]rt), n. [F. art, L. ars, artis, orig., skill in joining or fitting; prob. akin to E. arm, aristocrat, article.]1. The employment of means to accomplish some desired end; the adaptation of things in the natural world to the uses of life; the application of knowledge or power to practical purposes. Blest with each grace of nature and of art. --Pope. 2. A system of rules serving to facilitate the performance of certain actions; a system of principles and rules for attaining a desired end; method of doing well some special work; -- often contradistinguished from science or speculative principles; as, the art of building or engraving; the art of war; the art of navigation. Science is systematized knowledge . . . Art is knowledge made efficient by skill. --J. F. Genung. 3. The systematic application of knowledge or skill in effecting a desired result. Also, an occupation or business requiring such knowledge or skill. The fishermen can't employ their art with so much success in so troubled a sea. --Addison. 4. The application of skill to the production of the beautiful by imitation or design, or an occupation in which skill is so employed, as in painting and sculpture; one of the fine arts; as, he prefers art to literature. 5. pl. Those branches of learning which are taught in the academical course of colleges; as, master of arts. In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts. --Pope. Four years spent in the arts (as they are called in colleges) is, perhaps, laying too laborious a foundation. --Goldsmith. 6. Learning; study; applied knowledge, science, or letters. [Archaic] So vast is art, so narrow human wit. --Pope. 7. Skill, dexterity, or the power of performing certain actions, acquired by experience, study, or observation; knack; as, a man has the art of managing his business to advantage. 8. Skillful plan; device. They employed every art to soothe . . . the discontented warriors. --Macaulay. 9. Cunning; artifice; craft. Madam, I swear I use no art at all. --Shak. Animals practice art when opposed to their superiors in strength. --Crabb. 10. The black art; magic. [Obs.] --Shak. Art and part (Scots Law), share or concern by aiding and abetting a criminal in the perpetration of a crime, whether by advice or by assistance in the execution; complicity. Note: The arts are divided into various classes. The useful, mechanical, or industrial arts are those in which the hands and body are more concerned than the mind; as in making clothes and utensils. These are called trades. The fine arts are those which have primarily to do with imagination and taste, and are applied to the production of what is beautiful. They include poetry, music, painting, engraving, sculpture, and architecture; but the term is often confined to painting, sculpture, and architecture. The liberal arts (artes liberales, the higher arts, which, among the Romans, only freemen were permitted to pursue) were, in the Middle Ages, these seven branches of learning, -- grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. In modern times the liberal arts include the sciences, philosophy, history, etc., which compose the course of academical or collegiate education. Hence, degrees in the arts; master and bachelor of arts. In America, literature and the elegant arts must grow up side by side with the coarser plants of daily necessity. --Irving. Syn: Science; literature; aptitude; readiness; skill; dexterity; adroitness; contrivance; profession; business; trade; calling; cunning; artifice; duplicity. See Science.
Con"science\, n. [F. conscience, fr. L. conscientia, fr. consciens, p. pr. of conscire to know, to be conscious; con- + scire to know. See Science.]1. Knowledge of one's own thoughts or actions; consciousness. [Obs.] The sweetest cordial we receive, at last, Is conscience of our virtuous actions past. --Denham. 2. The faculty, power, or inward principle which decides as to the character of one's own actions, purposes, and affections, warning against and condemning that which is wrong, and approving and prompting to that which is right; the moral faculty passing judgment on one's self; the moral sense. My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, And every tongue brings in a several tale, And every tale condemns me for a villain. --Shak. As science means knowledge, conscience etymologically means self-knowledge . . . But the English word implies a moral standard of action in the mind as well as a consciousness of our own actions. . . . Conscience is the reason, employed about questions of right and wrong, and accompanied with the sentiments of approbation and condemnation. --Whewell. 3. The estimate or determination of conscience; conviction or right or duty. Conscience supposes the existence of some such [i.e., moral] faculty, and properly signifies our consciousness of having acted agreeably or contrary to its directions. --Adam Smith. 4. Tenderness of feeling; pity. [Obs.] --Chaucer. Conscience clause, a clause in a general law exempting persons whose religious scruples forbid compliance therewith, -- as from taking judicial oaths, rendering military service, etc. Conscience money, stolen or wrongfully acquired money that is voluntarily restored to the rightful possessor. Such money paid into the United States treasury by unknown debtors is called the Conscience fund. Court of Conscience, a court established for the recovery of small debts, in London and other trading cities and districts. [Eng.] --Blackstone. In conscience, In all conscience, in deference or obedience to conscience or reason; in reason; reasonably. "This is enough in conscience." --Howell. "Half a dozen fools are, in all conscience, as many as you should require." --Swift. To make conscience of, To make a matter of conscience, to act according to the dictates of conscience concerning (any matter), or to scruple to act contrary to its dictates.
In"scient\, a. [L. insciens, -entis, ignorant. See In- not, and Scient, Science.] Having little or no knowledge; ignorant; stupid; silly. [R.] --N. Bacon.
Lit"er*a*ture\, n. [F. litt['e]rature, L. litteratura, literatura, learning, grammar, writing, fr. littera, litera, letter. See Letter.]1. Learning; acquaintance with letters or books. 2. The collective body of literary productions, embracing the entire results of knowledge and fancy preserved in writing; also, the whole body of literary productions or writings upon a given subject, or in reference to a particular science or branch of knowledge, or of a given country or period; as, the literature of Biblical criticism; the literature of chemistry. 3. The class of writings distinguished for beauty of style or expression, as poetry, essays, or history, in distinction from scientific treatises and works which contain positive knowledge; belles-lettres. 4. The occupation, profession, or business of doing literary work. --Lamp. Syn: Science; learning; erudition; belles-lettres. Usage: See Science. -- Literature, Learning, Erudition. Literature, in its widest sense, embraces all compositions in writing or print which preserve the results of observation, thought, or fancy; but those upon the positive sciences (mathematics, etc.) are usually excluded. It is often confined, however, to belles-lettres, or works of taste and sentiment, as poetry, eloquence, history, etc., excluding abstract discussions and mere erudition. A man of literature (in this narrowest sense) is one who is versed in belles-lettres; a man of learning excels in what is taught in the schools, and has a wide extent of knowledge, especially, in respect to the past; a man of erudition is one who is skilled in the more recondite branches of learned inquiry. The origin of all positive science and philosophy, as well as of all literature and art, in the forms in which they exist in civilized Europe, must be traced to the Greeks. --Sir G. Lewis. Learning thy talent is, but mine is sense. --Prior. Some gentlemen, abounding in their university erudition, fill their sermons with philosophical terms. --Swift.
Nice\, a. [Compar. Nicer; superl. Nicest.] [OE., foolish, fr. OF. nice ignorant, fool, fr. L. nescius ignorant; ne not + scius knowing, scire to know. perhaps influenced by E. nesh delicate, soft. See No, and Science.]1. Foolish; silly; simple; ignorant; also, weak; effeminate. [Obs.] --Gower. But say that we ben wise and nothing nice. --Chaucer. 2. Of trifling moment; nimportant; trivial. [Obs.] The letter was not nice, but full of charge Of dear import. --Shak. 3. Overscrupulous or exacting; hard to please or satisfy; fastidious in small matters. Curious not knowing, not exact but nice. --Pope. And to taste Think not I shall be nice. --Milton. 4. Delicate; refined; dainty; pure. Dear love, continue nice and chaste. --Donne. A nice and subtile happiness. --Milton. 5. Apprehending slight differences or delicate distinctions; distinguishing accurately or minutely; carefully discriminating; as, a nice taste or judgment. "Our author happy in a judge so nice." --Pope. "Nice verbal criticism." --Coleridge. 6. Done or made with careful labor; suited to excite admiration on account of exactness; evidencing great skill; exact; fine; finished; as, nice proportions, nice workmanship, a nice application; exactly or fastidiously discriminated; requiring close discrimination; as, a nice point of law, a nice distinction in philosophy. The difference is too nice Where ends the virtue, or begins the vice. --Pope. 7. Pleasing; agreeable; gratifying; delightful; good; as, a nice party; a nice excursion; a nice person; a nice day; a nice sauce, etc. [Loosely & Colloquially] To make nice of, to be scrupulous about. [Obs.] --Shak. Syn: Dainty; delicate; exquisite; fine; accurate; exact; correct; precise; particular; scrupulous; punctilious; fastidious; squeamish; finical; effeminate; silly.
Om*nis"cient\, a. [Omni- + L. sciens, -entis, p. pr. of scire to know: cf. F. omniscient. See Science.] Having universal knowledge; knowing all things; infinitely knowing or wise; as, the omniscient God. -- Om*nis"cient*ly, adv. For what can scape the eye Of God all-seeing, or deceive his heart Omniscient? --Milton.
Pre"sci*ent\ (pr[=e]"sh[i^]*ent or -shent), a. [L. praesciens, -entis, p. pr. of praescire to foreknow; prae before + scire to know: cf. F. prescient. See Science.] Having knowledge of coming events; foreseeing; conscious beforehand. --Pope. Henry . . . had shown himself sensible, and almost prescient, of this event. --Bacon.
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.
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.
Sev"en\, a. [OE. seven, seoven, seofen, AS. seofon, seofan, seofen; akin to D. zeven, OS., Goth., & OHG. sibun, G. sieben, Icel. sjau, sj["o], Sw. sju, Dan. syv, Lith. septyni, Russ. seme, W. saith, Gael. seachd, Ir. seacht, L. septem, Gr. ???, Skr. saptan. [root]305. Cf. Hebdomad, Heptagon, September.] One more than six; six and one added; as, seven days make one week. Seven sciences. See the Note under Science, n., 4. Seven stars (Astron.), the Pleiades. Seven wonders of the world. See under Wonders. Seven-year apple (Bot.), a rubiaceous shrub (Genipa clusiifolia) growing in the West Indies; also, its edible fruit. Seven-year vine (Bot.), a tropical climbing plant (Ipom[oe]a tuberosa) related to the morning-glory.
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