Etymology
1580s; from physic (see also -ics), from Middle English phisik, from Old French fisike (“natural science, art of healing”), from Latin physica (“study of nature”), from Ancient Greek φυσική (phusikḗ), feminine singular of φυσικός (phusikós, “natural; physical”), from Ancient Greek φύσις (phúsis, “origin; nature, property”), from Ancient Greek φύω (phúō, “produce; bear; grow”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to appear, become, rise up”).
Noun
physics (uncountable)
- The branch of science concerned with the study of the properties and interactions of space, time, matter and energy.
Newtonian physics was extended by Einstein to explain the effects of travelling near the speed of light; quantum physics extends it to account for the behaviour of atoms.
1994, A.J Meadows, M.M Hancock-Beaulieu, editors, Front Page Physics: A Century of Physics in the News, page 3:An analysis of media reports can correspondingly cast some light not only on how much physics is being reported, but on what branches of physics attract most popular attention.
2012 March, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 146:The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.
- The physical aspects of a phenomenon or a system, especially those examined or studied scientifically.
The physics of car crashes would not let Tom Cruise walk away like that.
1994, A.J Meadows, M.M Hancock-Beaulieu, editors, Front Page Physics: A Century of Physics in the News, page 3:An analysis of media reports can correspondingly cast some light not only on how much physics is being reported, but on what branches of physics attract most popular attention.
Translations
branch of science
- Afrikaans: fisika (af)
- Albanian: fizikë (sq) f
- Amharic: ፊዚክስ (fiziks)
- Arabic: فِيزِيَاء (ar) f (fīziyāʔ), فِيزِيقَا (ar) f (fīzīqā)
- Egyptian Arabic: فيزيا f (fezya)
- Hijazi Arabic: فيزيا f (fīzya)
- Armenian: ֆիզիկա (hy) (fizika)
- Asturian: física f
- Azerbaijani: fizika (az)
- Basque: fisika (eu)
- Belarusian: фі́зіка (be) f (fízika)
- Bengali: পদার্থবিজ্ঞান (bn) (podarthobiggên), পদার্থবিদ্যা (bn) (podarthobidda)
- Breton: naturoniezh (br) f
- Bulgarian: фи́зика (bg) f (fízika)
- Burmese: ရူပဗေဒ (my) (rupa.beda.)
- Carpathian Rusyn: фі́зіка f (fízika)
- Catalan: física (ca) f
- Chinese:
- Cantonese: 物理學／物理学 (mat6 lei5 hok6)
- Hakka: 物理學／物理学 (vu̍t-lî-ho̍k)
- Hokkien: 物理學／物理学 (bu̍t-lí-ha̍k)
- Mandarin: 物理學／物理学 (zh) (wùlǐxué)
- Czech: fyzika (cs) f
- Danish: fysik (da) c
- Dhivehi: ފީޒިޔާއީ އިލްމު (fīziyāī ilmu)
- Dutch: natuurkunde (nl) f, fysica (nl) f
- Dzongkha: དངོས་ཁམས་རིག་པ (dngos khams rig pa)
- Esperanto: fiziko (eo)
- Estonian: füüsika (et)
- Faroese: alisfrøði (fo) f
- Finnish: fysiikka (fi)
- French: physique (fr) f
- Galician: física (gl) f
- Georgian: ფიზიკა (piziḳa)
- German: Physik (de) f
- Greek: φυσική (el) f (fysikí)
- Gujarati: ભૌતિકવિજ્ઞાન (bhautikvijñān), ફિઝીક્સ (phijhīks)
- Haitian Creole: fizik
- Hebrew: פִֿיזִיקָה (he) f (fizika)
- Hindi: भौतिक शास्त्र m (bhautik śāstra), भौतिकी f (bhautikī)
- Hungarian: fizika (hu)
- Icelandic: eðlisfræði (is) f
- Ido: fiziko (io)
- Indonesian: fisika (id)
- Interlingua: physica (ia) f
- Irish: fisic f
- Italian: fisica (it) f
- Japanese: 物理学 (ja) (ぶつりがく, butsurigaku)
- Kannada: ಭೌತಶಾಸ್ತ್ರ (kn) (bhautaśāstra)
- Kazakh: физика (kk) (fizika)
- Khmer: រូបសាស្ត្រ (ruuppaʼsaah), រូបវិទ្យា (ruuppaʼvityiə)
- Korean: 물리학(物理學) (ko) (mullihak), 물리(物理) (ko) (mulli)
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish: فیزیا (ckb) (fîzya), فیزیک (ckb) (fîzîk)
- Kyrgyz: физика (ky) (fizika)
- Lao: ວັດຖຸວິທະຍາ (wat thu wi tha nyā), ວັດຖຸສາດ (lo) (wat thu sāt), ຟີຊິກ (fī sik)
- Latin: physica f
- Latvian: fizika f
- Lithuanian: fizika (lt) f
- Macedonian: физика (mk) f (fizika)
- Malay: fizik (ms)
- Maltese: fiżika f
- Manx: fishag
- Maori: mātai ahupūngao
- Marathi: भौतिकशास्त्र n (bhautikśāstra)
- Mongolian: физик (mn) (fizik)
- Nepali: भौतिक शास्त्र (bhautik śāstra)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: fysikk (no) m
- Nynorsk: fysikk m
- Occitan: fisica (oc) f
- Pashto: فزيک (ps) m (fezík)
- Persian: فیزیک (fa) (fizik)
- Pitcairn-Norfolk: fisiks
- Polish: fizyka (pl) f
- Portuguese: física (pt) f
- Punjabi: ਭੌਤਿਕ ਵਿਗਿਆਨ m (bhautik vigiāna)
- Romanian: fizică (ro) f
- Russian: фи́зика (ru) f (fízika)
- Scots: pheesics
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: физика f
- Roman: fizika (sh) f
- Shan: ပၢႆးႁၢင်ႈ (páai hāang)
- Sicilian: fìsica (scn) f
- Sinhalese: භෞතික විද්යාව (bhautika widyāwa)
- Slovak: fyzika (sk) f
- Slovene: fizika (sl) f
- Sorbian:
- Lower Sorbian: fyzika f
- Spanish: física (es) f
- Swahili: fizikia (sw)
- Swedish: fysik (sv) c
- Tagalog: pisika, liknayan (tl), sugnayan
- Tajik: физика (tg) (fizika)
- Tamil: பெளதிகம் (peḷatikam)
- Thai: ฟิสิกส์ (th) (fí-sìk)
- Tibetan: དངོས་ཁམས་རིག་པ (dngos khams rig pa)
- Tsonga: Physical science
- Turkish: fizik (tr), doğam (doğa kuramı)
- Turkmen: fizika
- Ukrainian: фі́зика (uk) f (fízyka)
- Urdu: طبیعیات f (tabī'iyyāt)
- Uyghur: فىزىكا (fizika)
- Uzbek: fizika (uz)
- Vietnamese: vật lý học (vi) (物理學)
- Võro: füüsiga
- Walloon: fizike (wa) f
- Welsh: ffiseg (cy) f
- Yiddish: פֿיזיק f (fizik)
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Further reading
- “physics”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “physics”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “physics”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
