Sciences
nounThe various organised branches of systematic study concerned with the natural and physical world.
How to spell sciences
8 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce sciences
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does sciences mean?
- nounThe various organised branches of systematic study concerned with the natural and physical world.
Sciences in a sentence
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The university funds both the arts and the sciences generously.
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Her degree combined two sciences: chemistry and geology.
Where does sciences come from?
Language of origin: Latin
This word traces back to the Latin verb scire, which simply meant 'to know'. From that verb came the noun scientia, meaning 'knowledge' or 'expertise', the state of knowing something thoroughly. English took the singular 'science' through Old French in the 1300s, where it first meant knowledge or learning in a broad sense before it narrowed over the following centuries to the systematic study of the natural and physical world. The plural 'sciences' developed naturally to cover the many separate branches of organised knowledge, such as biology, chemistry, and physics. A useful spelling reminder is that the 'sci-' beginning, with its silent c, is shared by relatives like 'conscience' and 'omniscient', all of them rooted in the same idea of knowing.
How the word is built
- sci- (from scire: to know)
- -ence (state or quality, noun suffix)
- -s (plural)
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