science

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English science, scyence, borrowed from Old French science, escience, from Latin scientia (“knowledge”), from sciens, the present participle stem of scire (“to know”).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈsaɪ.əns/, enPR: sīʹ-əns
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (CA)(file)
  • Hyphenation: sci‧ence
  • Rhymes: -aɪəns

Noun

science (countable and uncountable, plural sciences)

  1. (countable) A particular discipline or branch of knowledge that is natural, measurable or consisting of systematic principles rather than intuition or technical skill. [from 14th c.]
    • 2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
      Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.
    Of course in my opinion Social Studies is more of a science than an art.
  2. Specifically the natural sciences.
    My favorite subjects at school are science, mathematics, and history.
  3. (uncountable, archaic) Knowledge gained through study or practice; mastery of a particular discipline or area. [from 14th c.]
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
      For by his mightie Science he had seene / The secret vertue of that weapon keene […]
    • 1654, H[enry] Hammond, Of Fundamentals in a Notion Referring to Practise, London: […] J[ames] Flesher for Richard Royston, […], →OCLC:
      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.
    • 1819, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Notes on Hamlet:
      Shakespeare's deep and accurate science in mental philosophy
  4. (now only theology) The fact of knowing something; knowledge or understanding of a truth. [from 14th c.]
  5. (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.]
    • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 201:
      ‘I always ask leave, in the interests of science, to measure the crania of those going out there,’ he said.
    • 1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Disintegration Machine‎:
      "That this use should be destructive is no doubt very deplorable, but Science knows no distinctions of the sort, but follows knowledge wherever it may lead."
    • 1931 November 15, Winston Churchill, “Fifty Years Hence”, in Maclean's‎, archived from the original on 18 July 2020:
      What is it that has produced this new prodigious speed of man? Science is the cause. Her feeble groping fingers lifted here and there, often trampled underfoot, often frozen in isolation, have now become a vast organized, united, class-conscious army marching forward upon all the fronts toward objectives none may measure or define.
    • 1951 January 1, Albert Einstein, letter to Maurice Solovine, as published in Letters to Solovine (1993)
      I have found no better expression than "religious" for confidence in the rational nature of reality […] Whenever this feeling is absent, science degenerates into uninspired empiricism.
    • 2012 January, Philip E. Mirowski, “Harms to Health from the Pursuit of Profits”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 87:
      In an era when political leaders promise deliverance from decline through America’s purported preeminence in scientific research, the news that science is in deep trouble in the United States has been as unwelcome as a diagnosis of leukemia following the loss of health insurance.
  6. (uncountable) Knowledge derived from scientific disciplines, scientific method, or any systematic effort.
    • 2001 September, Neil deGrasse Tyson, “Over the rainbow”, in Natural History, volume 110, number 7, page 30:
      While much good science has come from the Hubble telescope (including the most reliable measure to date for the expansion rate of the universe), you would never know from media accounts that the foundation of our cosmic knowledge continues to flow primarily from the analysis of spectra and not from looking at pretty pictures.
  7. (uncountable, collective) The scientific community.
    • 2008, HMV Hammersmith Apollo, in Dara Ó Briain Talks Funny – Live in London, spoken by stand-up comedian (Dara Ó Briain), United Kingdom, published 2008:
      Science knows it doesn't know everything; otherwise, it'd stop.
    • 2020 September 14, “As Trump Again Rejects Science, Biden Calls Him a ‘Climate Arsonist’”, in New York Times‎:
      With wildfires raging across the West, climate change took center stage in the race for the White House on Monday as former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. called President Trump a “climate arsonist” while the president said that “I don’t think science knows” what is actually happening.
    • 2021 April 27, Amanda Hess, “Inject the Vaccine Fan Fiction Directly Into My Veins”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:
      There are plenty of earnestly respectful vaccine selfies, where the inoculated person bares a shoulder and thanks science for their shot.
    • 2021 June 3, Katherine Eban, quoting Robert Redfield, “The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins”, in Vanity Fair‎:
      “I expected it from politicians. I didn’t expect it from science.”
  8. (euphemistic, with definite article) Synonym of sweet science (“the sport of boxing”)
    • 1816, The art and practice of English boxing, page v:
      From a conviction, that the science is universally understood, the strong are taught humility, and the weak confidence. Many have laughed at the idea, that Boxing is of national service, but they have laughed at the expence[sic] of truth.
    • 1888, William Edwards, Art of Boxing and Science of Self-Defense:
      […] for not a blow or guard in boxing will repay you more than the cross-counter, which may well be called the sheet-anchor of the science.
Usage notes

Since the middle of the 20th century, the term science is 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 theology, the humanities (e.g., grammar) and the arts (e.g., music).

Synonyms
Hyponyms
Coordinate terms
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also

Verb

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

  1. (transitive, dated) To cause to become versed in science; to make skilled; to instruct.
    • 1742, Philip Francis, Odes, Epodes, and Carmen Seculare of Horace in Latin and English:
      I mock'd at all religious Fear, Deep-scienced in the mazy Lore Of mad Philosophy
  2. (transitive, colloquial, humorous) To use science to solve a problem.

Etymology 2

See scion.

Noun

science

  1. Obsolete spelling of scion

Further reading
  • science on Wikiquote.Wikiquote
  • "science" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 276.

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French science, from Old French science, escience, borrowed from Latin scientia.[1]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /sjɑ̃s/
  • Audio (France, Paris)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɑ̃s
  • Homophone: sciences

Noun

science f (plural sciences)

  1. science (field of study, etc.)
  2. (literary or archaic) knowledge
    Synonyms: connaissance, savoir

Derived terms

References
  1. Etymology and history of “science”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Further reading

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old French science, from Latin scientia.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /siːˈɛns(ə)/, /siˈɛns(ə)/

Noun

science (plural sciences)

  1. facts, knowledge; that which is known:
    1. A science; the body of knowledge composing a specific discipline.
    2. learnt knowledge, especially from written sources.
    3. applied or situational knowledge.
    4. truth, reality, verified information.
  2. One's faculty of finding information; knowing or insight
  3. One's faculty of making sound decisions; sagaciousness.
  4. One's aptitude or learning; one's knowledge (in a field).
  5. A non-learned discipline, pursuit, or field.
  6. (rare) verifiability; trust in knowledge.

Descendants
  • English: science
  • Scots: science

References

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French science.

Noun

science f (plural sciences)

  1. science (field of study, etc.)
  2. knowledge

Descendants

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin scientia.

Noun

science oblique singular, f (nominative singular science)

  1. knowledge; wisdom

Descendants
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