graph theory

American  

[graf theer-ee, thee-uh-ree] / ˈgræf ˌθɪər i, ˌθi ə ri /

noun

1. Mathematics. the study and analysis of the points and lines with which graphs create representations of mathematical relationships.

2. Computers. the representation of data using nonhierarchical structures based on nodes and the connections between them, utilized by many programming languages and algorithms.

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Etymology

Origin of graph theory

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

"But the irregularity we observed in our study pushed us to use graph theory, which gives us a mathematical way to describe this heterogeneous and messy -- but practical -- material."

From Science Daily • Apr. 11, 2024

By translating sequences of sounds from any given composition into a specific type of diagrams or graphs, the researchers were able to marshal the power of graph theory to calculate time irreversibility.

From Scientific American • Aug. 19, 2020

But underlying that study—and nearly every other project in her lab—is a branch of math called graph theory.

From Science Magazine • Apr. 11, 2019

Urschel has been pursuing his doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the offseason with a concentration on spectral graph theory, numerical linear algebra and machine learning.

From The Guardian • Jul. 27, 2017

Urschel spent the past two off-seasons at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying advanced mathematics, including spectral graph theory, matrix algebra and computational finance.

From New York Times • Jul. 27, 2017