maths

English

Etymology 1

Contraction of mathematics.

Alternative forms

• math (Canada, US)
• mathematics

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: măths IPA^(key): /mæθs/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• (Indic) IPA^(key): /maks/, Homophone: max
• (Nigerian English) IPA^(key): /mæs/, Homophone: mass
• (Singapore, Malaysia) IPA^(key): /mɛts/
• Rhymes: -æθs

Noun

maths (uncountable)

1. (Commonwealth, rarely Canada) Clipping of mathematics.
   • 1980 August 21, “Girls can do maths as well as boys”, in New Scientist, page 586:

     The conventional “commonsense” view now is that girls are conditioned both by family and teachers to believe that maths is a subject at which males excel, and that they believe they cannot be expected to comprehend its subtleties — so they don′t.

   • 2004, Miraca U.M. Gross, Exceptionally Gifted Children, page 229:

     At age 10, Ian was based with the Grade 6 students but was allowed to take maths with Grade 10 – a four-year grade advancement.

   • 2011, Clifford Matthews, IMechE Engineers′ Databook, 4th edition, John Wiley & Sons, page 40:

     Most people who are forced to use maths have little idea what it is really about.

   • 2023 May 29, Eugenia Cheng, “What if nobody is bad at maths?”, in The Guardian‎^[2], archived from the original on 25 August 2023:

     But one thing I know is that when I help five- and six-year-olds with maths they typically scream with excitement, and only learn to fear it later.

Derived terms

• applied maths
• mathsy

Translations

short form of mathematics

• Catalan: mates (ca) f pl
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 數學 / 数学 (zh) (shùxué)

• Czech: matika (cs) f
• Danish: mat (da) c
• Dutch: wiskunde (nl) f
• Estonian: mata (et)
• Finnish: matikka (fi)
• French: maths (fr) f pl
• German: Mathe (de) f
• Hungarian: matek (hu)
• Japanese: 数学 (ja) (すうがく, sūgaku)
• Latvian: matene f, matemātika f
• Marathi: गणित n (gaṇit)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: matte (no) m

  Nynorsk: matte (no) m

• Polish: matma (pl) f, majma f
• Russian: матема́тика (ru) f (matemátika) (no abbreviation)
• Sanskrit: गणित (sa) n (gaṇita)
• Scottish Gaelic: matamataig m
• Spanish: mates (es) f pl, mate (es) f sg
• Swedish: matte (sv) c
• Tamil: கணிதம் (ta) (kaṇitam)
• Vietnamese: toán học (vi)

Etymology 2

Noun

maths

1. plural of math

Verb

maths

1. third-person singular simple present indicative of math

Anagrams

• Thams, Smath

Chinese

Etymology

From English maths.

Pronunciation

• Cantonese (Jyutping): met¹ si²

---

• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: met¹ si²
    • Cantonese Pinyin: met⁷ si²
    • Guangdong Romanization: méd¹ xi²
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /mɛːt̚⁵ siː³⁵/

Noun

maths

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) mathematics

   Synonym: 數學 / 数学 (shùxué)

References

• English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese

French

Alternative forms

• math

Etymology

Clipping of mathématiques.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mat/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Noun

maths f pl

1. (informal) math or maths (study of numbers, etc.; a course involving the study of numbers)

   Ce type-là, c'est une tronche en maths.

   That guy is a pro at math.

Derived terms

• matheux

Further reading

• “maths”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012