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noun The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.
noun Such activities restricted to a class of natural phenomena.
noun Such activities applied to an object of inquiry or study.

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Century Dictionary (36)

Knowledge;comprehension or understanding of facts or principles. For God seith hit hym-self “shal neuere good appel Thorw no sotel science on sour stock growe.” Piers Plowman (C), xi. 207. Mercurie loveth wysdam and science, And Venus loveth ryot and dispence. Chaucer, Prol. to Wife of Bath's Tale, I. 699. As rose is aboue al floures most fine, So is science most digne of worthynesse. Rom. of Partenay (E. E. T. S.), Int., l. 107. His reputation was early spread throughout Europe, on account of his general science. Ticknor, Span. Lit., I. 33. Absolute beginnings are beyond the pale of science. J. Ward, Encyc. Brit., XX. 45.
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. Since all phenomena which have been sufficiently examined are found to take place with regularity, each having certain fixed conditions, positive and negative, on the occurrence of which it invariably happens, mankind have been able to ascertain … the conditions of the occurrence of many phenomena; and the progress of science mainly consists in ascertaining these conditions. J. S. Mill. Science is nothing but the finding of analogy, identity in the most remote parts. Emerson, Misc., p. 75. In science you must not talk before you know. In art you must not talk before you do. In literature you must not talk before you think…. Science—The knowledge of things, whether Ideal or Substantial. Art.—The modification of Substantial things by our Substantial Power. Literature.—The modification of Ideal things by our Ideal Power. Ruskin, The Eagle's Nest (1872), § 3. The work of the true man of Science is a perpetual striving after a better and closer knowledge of the planet on which his lot is cast, and of the universe in the vastness of which that planet is lost. J. N. Lockyer, Spec. Anal., p. 1.
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. (A) Mathematics, the study of the relations of the parts of hypothetical constructions, involving no observation of facts, but only of the creations of our own minds, having two branches—(1) pure mathematics, where the suppositions are arbitrary, and (2) applied mathematics, where the hypotheses are simplifications of real facts—and branching again into mathematical philosophy, as the theory of probabilities, etc., mathematical physics, as analytical mechanics, etc., and mathematical psychics, as political economy, etc. (B) Philosophy, the examination and logical analysis of the general body of fact—a science which both in reason and in history precedes successful dealing with special elements of the universe—branching into(1) logic and (2) metaphysics. (C) Nomology, the science of the most general laws or uniformities, having two main branches—(1) psychology and (2) general physics. (D) Chemistry, the determination of physical constants, and the study of the different kinds of matter in which these constants differ. (E) Biology, the study of a peculiar class of substances, the protoplasms, and of the kinds of organisms into which they grow. (F) Sciences of organizations of organisms, embracing (1) physiology, the science of the working of physical structures of organs, and (2) sociology, the science of psychical unions, especially modes of human society, including ethics, linguistics, politics, etc. (G) Descriptions and explanations of individual objects or collections, divided into (1) cosmology, embracing astronomy, geognosy, etc., and (2) accounts of human matters, as statistics, history, biography, etc. At o syde of the Emperours Table sitten many Philosofres, that ben preved for wise men in many dyverse Scyences. Mandeville, Travels, p. 234. To instruct her fully in those sciences, Where of I know she is not ignorant. Shak., T. of the S., ii. l. 57. A science is an aggregate of knowledge whose particular items are more closely related to one another in the way of kinship than to any other collective mass of particulars. A. Bain, Mind, XIII. 527.

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Political economy as a science was a constant butt for his wit, and in physical science he was dense to a point where his ignorance calls for pity. — Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 5
Pierre Duhem was one of the great figures in French science, a devoted teacher, and a distinguished scholar of the history and philosophy of science. — CiteULike: Everyone's library
I am now resiting Biology and English as my science was a DD and English was a C grade. — NMM - UK Medical School Forums
The word science comes from the Latin "scientia," meaning knowledge. — The daily irrelevant
If all these alleged science-loving, reason-imbibing liberals took a long hard look at the various studies on secondhand smoke (this site run by a public health researcher who prefers honesty to religiosity in his science is a good place to start), they'd find that the evidence for the effects of secondhand smoke isn't as robust as they think. — Furious Seasons

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