Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Science \Sci"ence\, n. [F., fr. L. scientia, fr. sciens, -entis,
   p. pr. of scire to know. Cf. {Conscience}, {Conscious},
   {Nice}.]
   1. Knowledge; knowledge of principles and causes; ascertained
      truth of facts.

            If we conceive God's sight or science, before the
            creation, to be extended to all and every part of
            the world, seeing everything as it is, . . . his
            science or sight from all eternity lays no necessity
            on anything to come to pass.          --Hammond.

            Shakespeare's deep and accurate science in mental
            philosophy.                           --Coleridge.

   2. 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.

            All this new science that men lere [teach].
                                                  --Chaucer.

            Science is . . . a complement of cognitions, having,
            in point of form, the character of logical
            perfection, and in point of matter, the character of
            real truth.                           --Sir W.
                                                  Hamilton.

   3. 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}.

            Voltaire hardly left a single corner of the field
            entirely unexplored in science, poetry, history,
            philosophy.                           --J. Morley.

   4. Any branch or department of systematized knowledge
      considered as a distinct field of investigation or object
      of study; as, the science of astronomy, of chemistry, or
      of mind.

   Note: The ancients reckoned seven sciences, namely, grammar,
         rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, music, geometry, and
         astronomy; -- the first three being included in the
         Trivium, the remaining four in the Quadrivium.

               Good sense, which only is the gift of Heaven, And
               though no science, fairly worth the seven.
                                                  --Pope.

   5. Art, skill, or expertness, regarded as the result of
      knowledge of laws and principles.

            His science, coolness, and great strength. --G. A.
                                                  Lawrence.

   Note: Science is applied or pure. Applied science is a
         knowledge of facts, events, or phenomena, as explained,
         accounted for, or produced, by means of powers, causes,
         or laws. Pure science is the knowledge of these powers,
         causes, or laws, considered apart, or as pure from all
         applications. Both these terms have a similar and
         special signification when applied to the science of
         quantity; as, the applied and pure mathematics. Exact
         science is knowledge so systematized that prediction
         and verification, by measurement, experiment,
         observation, etc., are possible. The mathematical and
         physical sciences are called the exact sciences.

   {Comparative sciences}, {Inductive sciences}. See under
      {Comparative}, and {Inductive}.

   Syn: Literature; art; knowledge.

   Usage: {Science}, {Literature}, {Art}. Science is literally
          knowledge, but more usually denotes a systematic and
          orderly arrangement of knowledge. In a more
          distinctive sense, science embraces those branches of
          knowledge of which the subject-matter is either
          ultimate principles, or facts as explained by
          principles or laws thus arranged in natural order. The
          term literature sometimes denotes all compositions not
          embraced under science, but usually confined to the
          belles-lettres. [See {Literature}.] Art is that which
          depends on practice and skill in performance. ``In
          science, scimus ut sciamus; in art, scimus ut
          producamus. And, therefore, science and art may be
          said to be investigations of truth; but one, science,
          inquires for the sake of knowledge; the other, art,
          for the sake of production; and hence science is more
          concerned with the higher truths, art with the lower;
          and science never is engaged, as art is, in productive
          application. And the most perfect state of science,
          therefore, will be the most high and accurate inquiry;
          the perfection of art will be the most apt and
          efficient system of rules; art always throwing itself
          into the form of rules.'' --Karslake.

Source : WordNet®

physical science
     n : the science of matter and energy and their interactions
         [syn: {physics}, {natural philosophy}]