physics

• physicks (obsolete)

1580s; from physic (see also -ics), from Middle English phisik, from Old French fisike (“natural science, art of healing”), from Latin physica (“study of nature”), from Ancient Greek φυσική (phusikḗ), feminine singular of φυσικός (phusikós, “natural; physical”), from Ancient Greek φύσις (phúsis, “origin; nature, property”), from Ancient Greek φύω (phúō, “produce; bear; grow”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to appear, become, rise up”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɪz.ɪks/

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physics (uncountable)

1. The branch of science concerned with the study of the properties and interactions of space, time, matter and energy.
   • 1994, A.J Meadows, M.M Hancock-Beaulieu, editor, Front Page Physics: A Century of Physics in the News‎, page 3:

     An analysis of media reports can correspondingly cast some light not only on how much physics is being reported, but on what branches of physics attract most popular attention.

   • 2012 March 1, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 146:

     The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.

   Newtonian physics was extended by Einstein to explain the effects of travelling near the speed of light; quantum physics extends it to account for the behaviour of atoms.

2. The physical aspects of a phenomenon or a system, especially those studied scientifically.

   The physics of car crashes would not let Tom Cruise walk away like that.

   • 1994, A.J Meadows, M.M Hancock-Beaulieu, editor, Front Page Physics: A Century of Physics in the News‎, page 3:

     An analysis of media reports can correspondingly cast some light not only on how much physics is being reported, but on what branches of physics attract most popular attention.

• nonphysics

• See also Thesaurus:physics

physics

1. plural of physic

physics

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of physic

• physics in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• physics in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• physics at OneLook Dictionary Search