Mathematics is the study of numbers, quantities, and shapes. When mathematics is taught as a subject at school, it is usually called maths in British English, and math in American English.
Be Careful!
Mathematics, maths, and math are uncountable nouns and are used with a singular verb. Don't say, for example, 'Maths are my best subject'.
When you are referring to a science rather than a school subject, use mathematics.
Noun | 1. | ![]() rounding, rounding error - (mathematics) a miscalculation that results from rounding off numbers to a convenient number of decimals; "the error in the calculation was attributable to rounding"; "taxes are rounded off to the nearest dollar but the rounding error is surprisingly small" truncation error - (mathematics) a miscalculation that results from cutting off a numerical calculation before it is finished mathematical operation, mathematical process, operation - (mathematics) calculation by mathematical methods; "the problems at the end of the chapter demonstrated the mathematical processes involved in the derivation"; "they were learning the basic operations of arithmetic" rationalisation, rationalization - (mathematics) the simplification of an expression or equation by eliminating radicals without changing the value of the expression or the roots of the equation invariance - the nature of a quantity or property or function that remains unchanged when a given transformation is applied to it; "the invariance of the configuration under translation" accuracy - (mathematics) the number of significant figures given in a number; "the atomic clock enabled scientists to measure time with much greater accuracy" symmetricalness, symmetry, correspondence, balance - (mathematics) an attribute of a shape or relation; exact reflection of form on opposite sides of a dividing line or plane factoring, factorisation, factorization - (mathematics) the resolution of an entity into factors such that when multiplied together they give the original entity extrapolation - (mathematics) calculation of the value of a function outside the range of known values interpolation - (mathematics) calculation of the value of a function between the values already known formula, rule - (mathematics) a standard procedure for solving a class of mathematical problems; "he determined the upper bound with Descartes' rule of signs"; "he gave us a general formula for attacking polynomials" recursion - (mathematics) an expression such that each term is generated by repeating a particular mathematical operation invariant - a feature (quantity or property or function) that remains unchanged when a particular transformation is applied to it multinomial, polynomial - a mathematical function that is the sum of a number of terms series - (mathematics) the sum of a finite or infinite sequence of expressions infinitesimal - (mathematics) a variable that has zero as its limit fractal - (mathematics) a geometric pattern that is repeated at every scale and so cannot be represented by classical geometry science, scientific discipline - a particular branch of scientific knowledge; "the science of genetics" pure mathematics - the branches of mathematics that study and develop the principles of mathematics for their own sake rather than for their immediate usefulness arithmetic - the branch of pure mathematics dealing with the theory of numerical calculations geometry - the pure mathematics of points and lines and curves and surfaces affine geometry - the geometry of affine transformations elementary geometry, Euclidean geometry, parabolic geometry - (mathematics) geometry based on Euclid's axioms Euclidean axiom, Euclid's axiom, Euclid's postulate - (mathematics) any of five axioms that are generally recognized as the basis for Euclidean geometry fractal geometry - (mathematics) the geometry of fractals; "Benoit Mandelbrot pioneered fractal geometry" non-Euclidean geometry - (mathematics) geometry based on axioms different from Euclid's; "non-Euclidean geometries discard or replace one or more of the Euclidean axioms" hyperbolic geometry - (mathematics) a non-Euclidean geometry in which the parallel axiom is replaced by the assumption that through any point in a plane there are two or more lines that do not intersect a given line in the plane; "Karl Gauss pioneered hyperbolic geometry" elliptic geometry, Riemannian geometry - (mathematics) a non-Euclidean geometry that regards space as like a sphere and a line as like a great circle; "Bernhard Riemann pioneered elliptic geometry" numerical analysis - (mathematics) the branch of mathematics that studies algorithms for approximating solutions to problems in the infinitesimal calculus spherical geometry - (mathematics) the geometry of figures on the surface of a sphere spherical trigonometry - (mathematics) the trigonometry of spherical triangles analytic geometry, analytical geometry, coordinate geometry - the use of algebra to study geometric properties; operates on symbols defined in a coordinate system plane geometry - the geometry of 2-dimensional figures solid geometry - the geometry of 3-dimensional space |