science

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.
2. n. Such activities restricted to a class of natural phenomena.
3. n. Such activities applied to an object of inquiry or study.
4. n. Methodological activity, discipline, or study: I've got packing a suitcase down to a science.
5. n. An activity that appears to require study and method: the science of purchasing.
6. n. Knowledge, especially that gained through experience.
7. n. Christian Science.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Knowledge;comprehension or understanding of facts or principles.
2. n. Knowledge gained by systematic observation, experiment, and reasoning; knowledge coördinated, arranged, and systematized; also, the prosecution of truth as thus known, both in the abstract and as a historical development.
3. n. Knowledge regarding any special group of objects, coördinated, arranged, and systematized; what is known concerning a subject, systematically arranged; a branch of knowledge: as, the science of botany, of astronomy, of etymology, of metaphysics; mental science; physical science; in a narrow sense, one of the physical sciences, as distinguished from mathematics, metaphysics, etc. In reference to their degree of specialization, the sciences may be arranged as follows.
4. n. Art derived from precepts or based on principles; skill resulting from training; special, exceptional, or preëminent skill.
5. n. Trade; occupation.
6. n. Synonyms and Art, Science. See art.
7. n. A so-called system of healing, which aims at a cnre of all physical ailments by educating the mind of the patient in certain directions. The mind is supposed to be trained to exclnde every idea of the existence of any real discomfort, on the ground that all such discomfort is the result of abnormal mental conditions; the mind being properly trained to ignore the body, no discomfort exists, since the mind does not admit it. The system has many variations, but in general is, evidently, a form of mind-cure or faith-cure.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable Knowledge derived from scientific disciplines, scientific method, or any systematic effort.
2. v. transitive To cause to become versed in science; to make skilled; to instruct.
3. n. Obsolete spelling of scion.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Knowledge; knowledge of principles and causes; ascertained truth of facts.
2. n. 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.
3. n. 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.
4. n. Any branch or department of systematized knowledge considered as a distinct field of investigation or object of study.
5. n. Art, skill, or expertness, regarded as the result of knowledge of laws and principles.
6. v. rare To cause to become versed in science; to make skilled; to instruct.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a particular branch of scientific knowledge
2. n. ability to produce solutions in some problem domain