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Theory   /θˈɪri/  /θˈiəri/   Listen
noun
Theory  n.  (pl. theories)  
1.
A doctrine, or scheme of things, which terminates in speculation or contemplation, without a view to practice; hypothesis; speculation. Note: "This word is employed by English writers in a very loose and improper sense. It is with them usually convertible into hypothesis, and hypothesis is commonly used as another term for conjecture. The terms theory and theoretical are properly used in opposition to the terms practice and practical. In this sense, they were exclusively employed by the ancients; and in this sense, they are almost exclusively employed by the Continental philosophers."
2.
An exposition of the general or abstract principles of any science; as, the theory of music.
3.
The science, as distinguished from the art; as, the theory and practice of medicine.
4.
The philosophical explanation of phenomena, either physical or moral; as, Lavoisier's theory of combustion; Adam Smith's theory of moral sentiments.
Atomic theory, Binary theory, etc. See under Atomic, Binary, etc.
Synonyms: Hypothesis, speculation. Theory, Hypothesis. A theory is a scheme of the relations subsisting between the parts of a systematic whole; an hypothesis is a tentative conjecture respecting a cause of phenomena.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Theory" Quotes from Famous Books



... This theory is confirmed by discoveries in the prehistoric cemeteries of the Viminal and Esquiline hills, which contain coffins as well as cineraria, or ash-urns. The discoveries have been published only in a fragmentary way, so that we cannot yet follow their development stage by stage, and ...
— Pagan and Christian Rome • Rodolfo Lanciani

... Exhalation, occasion'd by the Adustion of their Sulphur, which (for the Reasons lately mention'd I should rather call their Oyly parts;) yet still this account is applicable but to some Particular Bodies, and will afford us no General Theory of Blackness. For if, for example, White Harts-horn, being, in Vessels well luted to each other, expos'd to the fire, be said to turn Black by the Infection of its own Smoak, I think I may justly demand, what it is that makes the Smoak or Soot it self Black, since no Such Colour, but ...
— Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664) • Robert Boyle

... Moussorgsky composed as though he had been born into a world in which there was no musical tradition, a world where, indeed, no fine musical literature, and only a few folk-songs and orthodox liturgical chants and Greek-Catholic scales existed. Toward musical theory he seems to have been completely indifferent. Only one rule he recognized, and that was, "Art is a means of speech between man and man, and not an end." He was self-taught, and actually invented an art of music with each step of composition. And what he produced, though it was not great in bulk, ...
— Musical Portraits - Interpretations of Twenty Modern Composers • Paul Rosenfeld

... So long as the separate organization of the members be not abolished; so long as it exists, by a constitutional necessity, for local purposes; though it should be in perfect subordination to the general authority of the union, it would still be, in fact and in theory, an association of states, or a confederacy. The proposed Constitution, so far from implying an abolition of the State governments, makes them constituent parts of the national sovereignty, by allowing them a direct representation in the Senate, and leaves in their ...
— The Federalist Papers

... single-taxer, who has just returned from Great Britain, believes that the English people is ready to listen to the principles of the single-tax theory. And when the New ...
— The Patient Observer - And His Friends • Simeon Strunsky


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