Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of, relating to, or based on theory.
- adjective Restricted to theory; not practical or applied.
- adjective Studying or working to develop theory.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In chem., indicating the analytical values or other properties which should be obtained from a compound provided the correct conception (theory) of its composition has been formed.
- Having the object of knowledge (
θεωρητόν ) as its end; concerned with knowledge only, not with accomplishing anything or producing anything; purely scientific; speculative. - Dealing with or making deductions from imperfect theory, and not correctly indicating the real facts as presenting themselves in experience.
- In Kantian terminology, having reference to what is or is not true, as opposed to practical, or having reference to what ought or may innocently be done or left undone.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Of or relating to
theory ;abstract ; notempirical .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective concerned primarily with theories or hypotheses rather than practical considerations
- adjective concerned with theories rather than their practical applications
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Despite being conveyed as purely theoretical, a recent article in the national Canadian newspaper, the Financial Post, referred to the amero, not as a theoretical idea or conspiracy theory, but as a potential reality.
OpEdNews - Quicklink: North-American Monetary Integration: Here Comes the Amero 2008
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Aristotle is well aware of the limitations of what he calls theoretical wisdom.
Wisdom Ryan, Sharon 2007
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I don't teach abstract political science with all the, what I call theoretical, conceptual baloney.
The Grand Failure: The Birth & Death of Communism in the 20th Century 1989
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Might it not happen that what he calls theoretical philosophy seems useless and barren to the
Chips From A German Workshop. Vol. III. Essays on Literature, Biography, and Antiquities 1861
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O'Halloran, have most gravely recorded as authentic narrations the wildest legendary traditions; and more recently, to make confusion doubly confounded, others have built up what they call theoretical histories on these nursery tales.
Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) Isaac Disraeli 1807
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It is largely due to the above-mentioned theorists that general equilibrium theory has become the basic approach in theoretical economic analysis.
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1969-2006 2010
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At the other end of the chemical spectrum, physical chemistry, including chemical thermodynamics and kinetics, dominates with 14 prizes, but there has also been 6 prizes in theoretical chemistry.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry: The Development of Modern Chemistry 2010
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The latest Nobel Prize for work in theoretical chemistry was given in 1998 to Walter
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry: The Development of Modern Chemistry 2010
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The main theoretical issue is that the conditions that sustain liberal democracy also sustain cooperation because they increase trust and accountability.
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Ask your son to ask around to his professors if there are any up-or-down confirmation experiments they know of for planetary energy budget models or for planetary climate models, such as can be and has been designed for questions in theoretical particle physics such as the LHC.
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