science

noun

sci·ence ˈsī-ən(t)s

: knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method

: such knowledge or such a system of knowledge concerned with the physical world and its phenomena : natural science

: a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study

the science of theology

: something (such as a sport or technique) that may be studied or learned like systematized knowledge

have it down to a science

: a system or method reconciling practical ends with scientific laws

cooking is both a science and an art

capitalized : christian science

: the state of knowing : knowledge as distinguished from ignorance or misunderstanding

Examples of science in a Sentence

The Malay tapir, the largest of the world's four tapir species, remained largely invisible to science until recently. The other three species of these odd, endearing animals all live in South America. —

Anthony King, New York Times, 2 June 2009

If there were any doubt, Golden's muckraking investigation—he is the Ida Tarbell of college admissions—reveals that almost every word uttered by representatives of the top colleges about the care and nuance and science of the much vaunted admissions process is bunk. —

Michael Wolff, New York Times Book Review, 17 Sept. 2006

Of course, there is both corporate and government-sponsored grant money available for such initiatives in science and engineering. And scientists are used to working together in laboratories. But in the humanities it was different, said the deans. —

David Laurence, Association of Departments of English Bulletin, Winter 2004

The journal Annales was started in 1929, by Bloch and Lucien Febvre, two friends conversant with the new sciences of sociology and geography, psychology and anthropology. —

Stephen Kotkin, New Yorker, 29 Sept. 2003

The program encourages students to pursue a career in science. a list of terms commonly used in science a new branch of science advances in science and technology Students are required to take two sciences. students majoring in a science See More

Recent Examples on the Web Peter Anderson, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, noted that since Paxlovid was approved, experts have developed a revised list of notable drugs that may clash with ritonavir and published it on the National Institutes of Health website. —

Benjamin Ryan, NBC News, 24 Sep. 2023 The human and social services, and nutritional science, those CTE programs ... to me, those are some that everybody should take. —

Brandon Smith, Arkansas Online, 24 Sep. 2023 There’s so much more interesting stuff right now: how performance is interested in science and technology, how performance is interested in music. —

Vogue, 23 Sep. 2023 Following Elon Musk’s lead, Big Tech is surrendering to disinformation ‘A serious threat to the integrity of science’ In September 2022, an NIH council greenlit a $150 million program to fund research on how to best communicate health issues to the public. —

Joseph Menn, Washington Post, 23 Sep. 2023 David Kinney, a philosopher of science at Yale University, recently worked with biophysicist Chris Kempes of the Santa Fe Institute to develop a new way of detecting possible agnostic biosignatures. —

Elise Cutts, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Sep. 2023 Starting in the 1970s, a Baltimore doctor quietly preserved DNA evidence from rape victims, believing science would eventually catch up. —

Catherine Rentz, ProPublica, 21 Sep. 2023 What an asteroid on Earth can tell us The science team has 12 major hypotheses and 54 sub-hypotheses to test, according to Dworkin, which fall into four broad categories. —

Popular Science, 20 Sep. 2023 An evolutionary biology prof who keeps threatening to write the science book that will rock the academic world, the remarkably unremarkable family man would appear to be the last person to crash the subconscious of those unknown to him. —

Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Sep. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'science.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, "knowledge, the ability to know, learning, branch of knowledge," borrowed from Anglo-French science, cience, borrowed from Latin scientia "knowledge, awareness, understanding, branch of knowledge, learning," noun derivative from scient-, sciens, present participle of sciō, scīre "to know," perhaps going back to Indo-European *skh₂-i(e/o)-, present tense formation from a verbal base *skeh₂-, *skh₂- "cut open, flay" (if sense development was "cut, incise, mark" > "distinguish" > "know"), whence also Sanskrit -chyati "(s/he) flays, pulls off (skin)" (verbal adjective chātaḥ, chitáḥ) and perhaps Greek scházō, scházein, also scháō, schân "to make an incision, open (a vein), let flow"

Note: Regarding earlier use of the words science and scientist see the reference to the article by Sydney Ross in the note at scientist. — Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben (2. Auflage, 2001) regards Latin sciō as a back-formation from nesciō, nescīre "to not know, be unfamiliar with," going back to *ne-skH-ii̯e-, a negative compound from the base of secō, secāre "to cut, sever, make an incision" (see saw entry 2), going back to *sekai̯e-, going back to *sekH-i̯e-. M. de Vaan (Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages, Brill, 2008), on the other hand, hypothesizes that sciō is formed with an athematic suffix from *skh₂-, so that as a present formation it is directly comparable with Sanskrit -chyati. The semantic progression producing a verb meaning "know" is in any case questionable, if, as the Indo-Iranian and Greek evidence suggests, the base *skeh₂-, *skh₂- means primarily "cut open, flay" (rather than "split, separate"). Ernout and Meillet (Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine) note that while this is the only plausible comparison for sciō, it is not at all certain ("Le rapprochement avec le groupe de 'couper' est en l'air, tout en étant, semble-t-il, le seul possible.")

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 5

Time Traveler

The first known use of science was in the 14th century

See more words from the same century

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Cite this Entry

Style

“Science.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/science. Accessed 29 Sep. 2023.

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Kids Definition

science

noun

sci·ence ˈsī-ən(t)s

: an area of knowledge that is an object of study

: something (as a sport or technique) that may be studied or learned like a science

have it down to a science

: any of the natural sciences (as biology, physics, or chemistry)

: knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through the scientific method

Etymology

Middle English science "the state of knowing, knowledge," from early French science (same meaning), from Latin scientia (same meaning), from scient-, sciens "knowing," from scire "to know" — related to conscious, nice, omniscient see Word History at nice

Medical Definition

science

noun

sci·ence ˈsī-ən(t)s

: 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