| theory | |
| 1. n. An description of an event or system that is considered to be accurate. | |
| 2. n. (obsolete) Mental conception; reflection, consideration. | |
| 3. n. (sciences) A coherent statement or set of ideas that explains observed facts or phenomena and correctly predicts new facts or phenomena not previously observed, or which sets out the laws and principl | |
| 4. n. The underlying principles or methods of a given technical skill, art etc., as opposed to its practice. | |
| 5. n. (mathematics) A field of study attempting to exhaustively describe a particular class of constructs. | |
| Knot theory classifies the mappings of a circle into 3-space. | |
| 6. n. A hypothesis or conjecture. | |
| 7. n. (logic) A set of axioms together with all statements derivable from them; or, a set of statements which are deductively closed. Equivalently, a formal language plus a set of axioms (from which can the | |
| A theory is consistent if it has a model. | |
