a belief that can guide behavior; "the architect has a theory that more is less"; "they killed him on the theory that dead men tell no tales"
a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world; an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena; "theories can incorporate facts and laws and tested hypotheses"; "true in fact and theory"
a philosophical doctrine proposed by Edmund Husserl based on the study of human experience in which considerations of objective reality are not taken into account
a statement that makes something comprehensible by describing the relevant structure or operation or circumstances etc.; "the explanation was very simple"; "I expected a brief account"
the act of explaining; making something plain or intelligible; "I heard his explanation of the accident"
(art) the branch of philosophy dealing with beauty and taste (emphasizing the evaluative criteria that are applied to art); "traditional aesthetics assumed the existence of universal and timeless criteria of artistic value"
(genetics) a segment of DNA that is involved in producing a polypeptide chain; it can include regions preceding and following the coding DNA as well as introns between the exons; it is considered a unit of heredity; "genes were formerly called factors"
hereditary succession to a title or an office or property
any attribute or immaterial possession that is inherited from ancestors; "my only inheritance was my mother's blessing"; "the world's heritage of knowledge"
(genetics) attributes acquired via biological heredity from the parents
that which is inherited; a title or property or estate that passes by law to the heir on the death of the owner
characterized by or constituting a form of government in which power is held by one central authority; "a unitary as opposed to a federal form of government"
of or pertaining to or involving the use of units; "a unitary method was applied"; "established a unitary distance on which to base subsequent calculations"
relating to or characterized by or aiming toward unity; "the unitary principles of nationalism"; "a unitary movement in politics"
the repetition of an experiment in order to test the validity of its conclusion; "scientists will not believe an experimental result until they have seen at least one replication"
(law) a pleading made by a plaintiff in reply to the defendant's plea or answer
(genetics) the process whereby DNA makes a copy of itself before cell division