sciences

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.
   • 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...2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2023
2. Specifically the natural sciences.
   • My favorite subjects at school are science, mathematics, and history.
3. (archaic, uncountable) Knowledge gained through study or practice; mastery of a particular discipline or area.
   • For by his mightie Science he had seene / The secret vertue of that weapon keene […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
4. The fact of knowing something; knowledge or understanding of a truth.
   • O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding vain and profane babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Timothy 6:20-21
5. (uncountable) The collective discipline of study or learning acquired through the scientific method; the sum of knowledge gained from such methods and discipline.
   • Meronyms: physical science, life science, natural science, social science
6. (uncountable) Knowledge derived from scientific disciplines, scientific method, or any systematic effort.
   • 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...2001 September, Neil deGrasse Tyson, “Over the rainbow”, in Natural History, volume 110, number 7, page 30

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