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natural philosophy

American  
natural philosophy British  

noun

  1. (now only used in Scottish universities) physical science, esp physics

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of natural philosophy

late Middle English word dating back to 1425–75

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Zoe Kurland: John Tyndall was working as a professor of natural philosophy at The Royal Institution in London, publishing research in European journals.

From Scientific American • Nov. 9, 2023

There, daily Bible study shared a dense curriculum with history, geography, mathematics, natural philosophy, Greek, Latin, music and rhetoric.

From New York Times • Feb. 7, 2023

Islamic philosophers published major works in metaphysics, epistemology, and natural philosophy.

From Textbooks • Jun. 15, 2022

John Tyndall was a mountaineer, prolific writer of science books, prominent physicist and professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

From Scientific American • Aug. 26, 2019

This suggests that it took a while for Boyle to think of the word ‘fact’ as a respectable term to be used in natural philosophy when engaging with scholastics and Cartesians.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

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