Mathematics is the subject of numbers, shapes and equations. Counting at one end and things nobody can picture at the other.
The word is singular even though it looks plural, so mathematics is difficult. British English shortens it to maths and American English to math, which is one of the more noticeable differences in everyday speech. It divides into branches such as arithmetic, algebra, geometry and calculus. The adjective is mathematical, and a mathematician is somebody who does it for a living.
1nounmathematicsThe study of numbers, quantities, shapes and their relationships.
“Mathematics was always her strongest subject.”
Also accepted in games: math, maths
Mathematics is simply what is learned. Greek mathēma meant knowledge or study, and mathēmatikos meant to do with learning, so the subject took the general word for education and kept it for itself.
Proto-Indo-European
*men- (think)
Ancient Greek
μαθηματικός — on the matter of that which is learned
Latin
mathēmatica — mathematics
Old French
mathematique
Middle English
mathematique
English, today
mathematics
Built from
First use appears c. 1545. From mathematic + ics, from Middle English mathematique, methametik, matematik, matamatik, from Old French mathematique, from Latin mathēmatica (“mathematics”), from Ancient Greek μαθηματικός (“on the matter of that which is learned”), from μάθημα (“knowledge, study, learning”). Displaced native rīmcræft.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA