Noun

(wikipedia algebra)

(uncountable, medicine, historical, rare) The surgical treatment of a dislocated or fractured bone. Also (countable): a dislocation or fracture.

* {{quote-book, year= a1420

, year_published= 1894 , author= The British Museum Additional MS, 12,056 , by= (Lanfranc of Milan) , title= Lanfranc's "Science of cirurgie." , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=6XktAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA63 , original= , chapter= Wounds complicated by the Dislocation of a Bone , section= , isbn= 1163911380 , edition= , publisher= K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co , location= London , editor= Robert von Fleischhacker , volume= , page= 63 , passage= Ne take noon hede to brynge togidere þe parties of þe boon þat is to-broken or dislocate, til viij. daies ben goon in þe wyntir, & v. in þe somer; for þanne it schal make quytture, and be sikir from swellynge; & þanne brynge togidere þe brynkis eiþer þe disiuncture after þe techynge þat schal be seid in þe chapitle of algebra . }}

* {{quote-book, year= 1987

, year_published= , author= (John Newsome Crossley) , by= , title= The emergence of number , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=rc6atSk1d4IC&pg=PA65 , original= , chapter= Latency , section= Al-Khwarizwi , isbn= 9971504146 , edition= , publisher= World Scientific , location= Singapore , editor= , volume= , page= 65 , passage= Algebra'' is used today by surgeons to mean ''bone-setting , i.e. the restoration of bones, and the idea of restoration is present in the mathematical context, too. }}

(uncountable, mathematics) A system for computation using letters or other symbols to represent numbers, with rules for manipulating these symbols.

* {{quote-book, year= 1551

, year_published= 1888 , author= , by= , title= A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles: Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by the Philological Society. , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=JmpXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA217 , original= , chapter= , section= Part 1 , isbn= , edition= , publisher= Clarendon Press , location= Oxford , editor= , volume= 1 , page= 217 , passage= Also the rule of false position, with dyuers examples not onely vulgar, but some appertaynyng to the rule of Algeber . }}

(uncountable, mathematics) The study of algebraic structures.

(countable, mathematics) A universal algebra.

(countable, algebra) An algebraic structure consisting of a module of a commutative ring along with an additional binary operation that is bilinear.

* {{quote-book, year= 1854

, year_published= , author= (George Boole) , by= , title= , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=YNAtAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA37 , original= , chapter= Signs and their Laws , section= , isbn= , edition= , publisher= Walton and Maberly , location= London , editor= , volume= , page= 37 , passage= Let us conceive, then, of an Algebra in which the symbols x'', ''y'', ''z , &c. admit indifferently of the values 0 and 1, and of these values alone. }}

(countable, set theory, analysis) A collection of subsets of a given set, such that this collection contains the empty set, and the collection is closed under unions and complements (and thereby also under intersections and differences).

(countable, mathematics) One of several other types of mathematical structure.

(figurative) A system or process, that is like algebra by substituting one thing for another, or in using signs, symbols, etc., to represent concepts or ideas.

* {{quote-book, year= 1663

, year_published= 1871 , author= William Clark , by= , title= Marciano; or, The discovery: A tragi-comedy , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=I18JAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA13 , original= , chapter= , section= , isbn= 1446062937 , edition= , publisher= Reprinted for Private Circulation , location= Edinburgh , editor= William Hugh Logan , volume= , page= 13 , passage= Fly ! Fly ! avaunt with that base cowardly gibbrish ; That Algebra of honour ; which had never Been nam'd, if all had equal courage—what? }}

Noun

(en noun)

A necessary commodity, a staple requirement.

Rice is a basic for many Asian villagers.

An elementary building block, e.g. a fundamental piece of knowledge.

Arithmetic is a basic for the study of mathematics.

(military) Basic training.