Word.ws English Dictionary

physics envy

physics envy noun: the tendency of academics in non-scientific subjects to introduce jargon and mathematics to make their work appear more rigorous.

Noun

physics envy (uncountable)

  1. (derogatory) The tendency of academics in non-scientific subjects to introduce jargon and mathematics to make their work appear more rigorous.
    • Lack of sufficient pride in our own material (another consequence of reductionism and physics envy) made us more receptive to gurus from elsewhere.1997, Michael P. Murphy, Luke A. J. O'Neill, What is Life? The Next Fifty Years, page 31
    • By looking hard at traces of physics envy in the social sciences, these poets are able to diagnose the pathologies of race science and urban social theory.2015, Peter Middleton, Physics Envy: American Poetry and Science in the Cold War and After, page 11

Questions about physics envy

What does physics envy mean?
Physics envy means the tendency of academics in non-scientific subjects to introduce jargon and mathematics to make their work appear more rigorous.
What part of speech is physics envy?
Physics envy is a noun.

Words near physics envy in the dictionary

  1. physicotheology
  2. physicotherapeutic
  3. physicotherapeutics
  4. physicotherapy
  5. physics
  6. physics envy
  7. physics gun
  8. physics guns
  9. physics package
  10. physics packages
  11. physics-ly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: physics envy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “physics envy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/physics_envy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.