Theory vs Practise - What's the difference?
theory | practise |
(obsolete) Mental conception; reflection, consideration.
* 1646 , (Thomas Browne), Pseudodoxia Epidemica , VII.19:
(sciences) A coherent statement or set of ideas that explains observed facts or phenomena, or which sets out the laws and principles of something known or observed; a hypothesis confirmed by observation, experiment etc.
* 2002 , Duncan Steel, The Guardian , 23 May 2002:
* 2003 , (Bill Bryson), A Short History of Nearly Everything , BCA, p. 118:
* 2009 , (Richard Dawkins), The Greatest Show On Earth: The Evidence for Evolution , Bantam, p. 10:
* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
, author=Michael Riordan
, title=Tackling Infinity
, volume=100, issue=1, page=86
, magazine=
(uncountable) The underlying principles or methods of a given technical skill, art etc., as opposed to its practice.
* 1990 , Tony Bennett, Outside Literature , p. 139:
* 1998 , Elizabeth Souritz, The Great History of Russian Ballet :
(mathematics) A field of study attempting to exhaustively describe a particular class of constructs.
A hypothesis or conjecture.
* 1999 , Wes DeMott, Vapors :
* 2003 , Sean Coughlan, The Guardian , 21 Jun 2003:
(countable, logic) A set of axioms together with all statements derivable from them. Equivalently, a formal language plus a set of axioms (from which can then be derived theorems).
(transitive, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To repeat as a way of improving one's skill in that activity.
(intransitive, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To repeat an activity in this way.
(transitive, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To perform or observe in a habitual fashion.
(transitive, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To pursue (a career, especially law, fine art or medicine).
(intransitive, obsolete, British, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) To conspire.
To put into practice; to carry out; to act upon; to commit; to execute; to do.
* Shakespeare
* Alexander Pope
To make use of; to employ.
* Massinger
To teach or accustom by practice; to train.
* Landor
As a noun theory
is (obsolete) mental conception; reflection, consideration.As a verb practise is
(transitive|british|canada|australia|new zealand|ireland) to repeat as a way of improving one's skill in that activity.theory
English
Noun
- As they encrease the hatred of vice in some, so doe they enlarge the theory of wickednesse in all.
- It was only when Einstein's theory' of relativity was published in 1915 that physicists could show that Mercury's "anomaly" was actually because Newton's gravitational ' theory was incomplete.
- The world would need additional decades [...] before the Big Bang would begin to move from interesting idea to established theory .
- Scientists and creationists are understanding the word "theory'" in two very different senses. Evolution is a '''theory''' in the same sense as the heliocentric '''theory'''. In neither case should the word "only" be used, as in "only a ' theory ".
citation, passage=Some of the most beautiful and thus appealing physical theories', including quantum electrodynamics and quantum gravity, have been dogged for decades by infinities that erupt when theorists try to prod their calculations into new domains. Getting rid of these nagging infinities has probably occupied far more effort than was spent in originating the ' theories .}}
- Does this mean, then, that there can be no such thing as a theory of literature?
- Lopukhov wrote a number of books and articles on ballet theory , as well as his memoirs.
- Knot theory classifies the mappings of a circle into 3-space.
- It's just a theory I have, and I wonder if women would agree. But don't men say a lot about themselves when a short-skirted woman slides out of a car or chair?
- The theory is that by stripping costs to the bone, they are able to offer ludicrously low fares.
- A theory is consistent if it has a model.
Usage notes
In scientific discourse, the sense “unproven conjecture” is discouraged (with hypothesis or conjecture preferred), due to unintentional ambiguity and intentional equivocation with the sense “well-developed statement or structure”.Synonyms
* See alsoHolonyms
* (in logic) formal systemMeronyms
* (in logic) axiomsDerived terms
* acoustic theory * algorithmic information theory * antenna theory * atomic theory * catastrophe theory * category theory * cell theory * chaos theory * circuit theory * complexity theory * computation theory * control theory * critical theory * decision theory * domino theory * extreme value theory * game theory * giant impact theory * graph theory * group theory * in theory * information theory * kinetic theory of gases * knot theory * literary theory * music theory * number theory * opponent-process theory * phlogiston theory * probability theory * proof theory * quantum field theory * rational choice theory * set theory * signal theory * social theory * systems theory * theory of gravity * theory of relativity * theory of truth * Theory X * Theory Y * type theory * value theory * virtue theorySee also
* axiom * postulate * proposition Check translationspractise
English
Alternative forms
* practice (standard for noun but incorrect for verb outside US; almost universal for both in American English)Verb
(practis)- You should practise playing piano every day.
- If you want to speak French well, you need to practise .
- They gather to practise religion every Saturday.
- She practised law for forty years before retiring.
- Aught but Talbot's shadow whereon to practise your severity.''
- As this advice ye practise or neglect.
- In malice to this good knight's wife, I practised Ubaldo and Ricardo to corrupt her.
- In church they are taught to love God; after church they are practised to love their neighbour.