Key: "S:" = Show Synset (semantic) relations, "W:" = Show Word (lexical) relations
Display options for sense: (gloss) "an example sentence"
Noun
S: (n) law, jurisprudence (the collection of rules imposed by authority) "civilization presupposes respect for the law"; "the great problem for jurisprudence to allow freedom while enforcing order"
S: (n) law (legal document setting forth rules governing a particular kind of activity) "there is a law against kidnapping"
S: (n) law, natural law (a rule or body of rules of conduct inherent in human nature and essential to or binding upon human society)
S: (n) law, law of nature (a generalization that describes recurring facts or events in nature) "the laws of thermodynamics"
S: (n) all-or-none law ((neurophysiology) a nerve impulse resulting from a weak stimulus is just as strong as a nerve impulse resulting from a strong stimulus)
S: (n) principle, rule (a rule or law concerning a natural phenomenon or the function of a complex system) "the principle of the conservation of mass"; "the principle of jet propulsion"; "the right-hand rule for inductive fields"
S: (n) closure, law of closure (a Gestalt principle of organization holding that there is an innate tendency to perceive incomplete objects as complete and to close or fill gaps and to perceive asymmetric stimuli as symmetric)
S: (n) common fate, law of common fate (a Gestalt principle of organization holding that aspects of perceptual field that move or function in a similar manner will be perceived as a unit)
S: (n) proximity, law of proximity (a Gestalt principle of organization holding that (other things being equal) objects or events that are near to one another (in space or time) are perceived as belonging together as a unit)
S: (n) similarity, law of similarity (a Gestalt principle of organization holding that (other things being equal) parts of a stimulus field that are similar to each other tend to be perceived as belonging together as a unit)
S: (n) Gresham's Law ((economics) the principle that when two kinds of money having the same denominational value are in circulation the intrinsically more valuable money will be hoarded and the money of lower intrinsic value will circulate more freely until the intrinsically more valuable money is driven out of circulation; bad money drives out good; credited to Sir Thomas Gresham)
S: (n) mass-energy equivalence ((physics) the principle that a measured quantity of mass is equivalent (according to relativity theory) to a measured quantity of energy)
S: (n) Naegele's rule (rule for calculating an expected delivery date; subtract three months from the first day of the last menstrual period and add seven days to that date)
S: (n) principle of equivalence ((physics) the principle that an observer has no way of distinguishing whether his laboratory is in a uniform gravitational field or is in an accelerated frame of reference)
S: (n) principle of superposition, Huygens' principle of superposition (the displacement of any point due to the superposition of wave systems is equal to the sum of the displacements of the individual waves at that point) "the principle of superposition is the basis of the wave theory of light"
S: (n) mass-action principle, mass action ((neurology) the principle that the cortex of the brain operates as a coordinated system with large masses of neural tissue involved in all complex functioning)
S: (n) Avogadro's law, Avogadro's hypothesis (the principle that equal volumes of all gases (given the same temperature and pressure) contain equal numbers of molecules)
S: (n) Bernoulli's law, law of large numbers ((statistics) law stating that a large number of items taken at random from a population will (on the average) have the population statistics)
S: (n) Benford's law (a law used by auditors to identify fictitious populations of numbers; applies to any population of numbers derived from other numbers) "Benford's law holds that 30% of the time the first non-zero digit of a derived number will be 1 and it will be 9 only 4.6% of the time"
S: (n) Bose-Einstein statistics ((physics) statistical law obeyed by a system of particles whose wave function is not changed when two particles are interchanged (the Pauli exclusion principle does not apply))
S: (n) Coulomb's Law (a fundamental principle of electrostatics; the force of attraction or repulsion between two charged particles is directly proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the distance between them; principle also holds for magnetic poles)
S: (n) Dalton's law, Dalton's law of partial pressures, law of partial pressures ((chemistry and physics) law stating that the pressure exerted by a mixture of gases equals the sum of the partial pressures of the gases in the mixture; the pressure of a gas in a mixture equals the pressure it would exert if it occupied the same volume alone at the same temperature)
S: (n) distribution law ((chemistry) the total energy in an assembly of molecules is not distributed equally but is distributed around an average value according to a statistical distribution)
S: (n) equilibrium law, law of chemical equilibrium ((chemistry) the principle that (at chemical equilibrium) in a reversible reaction the ratio of the rate of the forward reaction to the rate of the reverse reaction is a constant for that reaction)
S: (n) Fechner's law, Weber-Fechner law ((psychophysics) the concept that the magnitude of a subjective sensation increases proportional to the logarithm of the stimulus intensity; based on early work by E. H. Weber)
S: (n) Fermi-Dirac statistics ((physics) law obeyed by a systems of particles whose wave function changes when two particles are interchanged (the Pauli exclusion principle applies))
S: (n) Henry's law ((chemistry) law formulated by the English chemist William Henry; the amount of a gas that will be absorbed by water increases as the gas pressure increases)
S: (n) Hooke's law ((physics) the principle that (within the elastic limit) the stress applied to a solid is proportional to the strain produced)
S: (n) Hubble's law, Hubble law ((astronomy) the generalization that the speed of recession of distant galaxies (the red shift) is proportional to their distance from the observer)
S: (n) Kepler's first law (a law stating that the orbit of each planet is an ellipse with the sun at one focus of the ellipse)
S: (n) Kepler's second law, law of areas, law of equal areas (a law concerning the speed at which planets travel; a line connecting a planet to the sun will sweep out equal areas in equal times) "Kepler's second law means that a planet's orbital speed changes with its distance from the sun"
S: (n) Kepler's third law, harmonic law (a law stating that the ratio of the square of the revolutionary period (in years) to the cube of the orbital axis (in astronomical units) is the same for all planets)
S: (n) Kirchhoff's laws ((physics) two laws governing electric networks in which steady currents flow: the sum of all the currents at a point is zero and the sum of the voltage gains and drops around any closed circuit is zero)
S: (n) law of averages (a law affirming that in the long run probabilities will determine performance)
S: (n) law of diminishing returns (a law affirming that to continue after a certain level of performance has been reached will result in a decline in effectiveness)
S: (n) law of effect ((psychology) the principle that behaviors are selected by their consequences; behavior having good consequences tends to be repeated whereas behavior that leads to bad consequences is not repeated)
S: (n) law of gravitation, Newton's law of gravitation ((physics) the law that states any two bodies attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them)
S: (n) law of multiple proportions, Dalton's law ((chemistry) law stating that when two elements can combine to form more than one compound the amounts of one of them that combines with a fixed amount of the other will exhibit a simple multiple relation)
S: (n) law of mass action ((chemistry) the law that states the following principle: the rate of a chemical reaction is directly proportional to the molecular concentrations of the reacting substances)
S: (n) law of thermodynamics ((physics) a law governing the relations between states of energy in a closed system)
S: (n) second law of thermodynamics (a law stating that mechanical work can be derived from a body only when that body interacts with another at a lower temperature; any spontaneous process results in an increase of entropy)
S: (n) third law of thermodynamics (law stating that the entropy of a substance approaches zero as its temperature approaches absolute zero)
S: (n) zeroth law of thermodynamics (the law that if two bodies are in thermal equilibrium with a third body then the first two bodies are in thermal equilibrium with each other)
S: (n) Mendel's law ((genetics) one of two principles of heredity formulated by Gregor Mendel on the basis of his experiments with plants; the principles were limited and modified by subsequent genetic research)
S: (n) law of segregation (members of a pair of homologous chromosomes separate during the formation of gametes and are distributed to different gametes so that every gamete receives only one member of the pair)
S: (n) law of independent assortment (each member of a pair of homologous chromosomes separates independently of the members of other pairs so the results are random)
S: (n) Ohm's law (electric current is directly proportional to voltage and inversely proportional to resistance; I = E/R)
S: (n) Pascal's law, Pascal's law of fluid pressures (pressure applied anywhere to a body of fluid causes a force to be transmitted equally in all directions; the force acts at right angles to any surface in contact with the fluid) "the hydraulic press is an application of Pascal's law"
S: (n) periodic law, Mendeleev's law ((chemistry) the principle that chemical properties of the elements are periodic functions of their atomic numbers)
S: (n) Planck's law ((physics) the basis of quantum theory; the energy of electromagnetic waves is contained in indivisible quanta that have to be radiated or absorbed as a whole; the magnitude is proportional to frequency where the constant of proportionality is given by Planck's constant)
S: (n) Planck's radiation law ((physics) an equation that expresses the distribution of energy in the radiated spectrum of an ideal black body)
S: (n) principle of relativity ((physics) a universal law that states that the laws of mechanics are not affected by a uniform rectilinear motion of the system of coordinates to which they are referred)
S: (n) Stevens' law, power law, Stevens' power law ((psychophysics) the concept that the magnitude of a subjective sensation increases proportional to a power of the stimulus intensity)
S: (n) Weber's law ((psychophysics) the concept that a just-noticeable difference in a stimulus is proportional to the magnitude of the original stimulus) "Weber's law explains why you don't notice your headlights are on in the daytime"
S: (n) jurisprudence, law, legal philosophy (the branch of philosophy concerned with the law and the principles that lead courts to make the decisions they do)
S: (n) law, practice of law (the learned profession that is mastered by graduate study in a law school and that is responsible for the judicial system) "he studied law at Yale"
S: (n) law, jurisprudence (the collection of rules imposed by authority) "civilization presupposes respect for the law"; "the great problem for jurisprudence to allow freedom while enforcing order"