English Online Dictionary. What means chemistry? What does chemistry mean?
English
Wikiversity
Etymology
First coined 1605, from chemist + -ry. From chemist, chymist, from Latin alchimista, from Arabic اَلْكِيمِيَاء (al-kīmiyāʔ), from article اَل (al-) + Ancient Greek χυμεία (khumeía, “art of alloying metals”), from χύμα (khúma, “fluid”), from χυμός (khumós, “juice”), from χέω (khéō, “I pour”).
Pronunciation
- enPR: kĕm'ĭstrē, IPA(key): /ˈkɛm.ɪ.stɹi/
Noun
chemistry (countable and uncountable, plural chemistries)
- (uncountable) The branch of natural science that deals with the composition and constitution of substances and the changes that they undergo as a consequence of alterations in the constitution of their molecules.
- (countable) An application of chemical theory and method to a particular substance.
- The chemical properties and reactions of a particular organism, environment etc.
- (informal) The mutual attraction between two people; rapport.
- (medicine, countable, informal, sometimes proscribed) A blood test to measure the amount of various components of the serum (such as electrolytes, creatinine, and glucose).
- Coordinate term: serology
Usage notes
- Historical note: This word and its derivatives were formerly spelled chy- or sometimes chi- (i.e., chymistry, chymist, chymical, etc., or chimistry, chimist, chimical, etc.) with pronunciation depending on the spelling.
- Chymistry is now sometimes used specifically to refer to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century chemistry, when it was not yet fully distinct from alchemy.
Meronyms
- See also Thesaurus:chemistry