algebra
noun /ˈældʒɪbrə/
/ˈældʒɪbrə/
[uncountable]- a type of mathematics in which letters and symbols are used to represent quantitiesWordfinderTopics Maths and measurementc1, Educationc1
- algebra
- arithmetic
- calculus
- equation
- geometry
- logarithm
- maths
- numeracy
- problem
- trigonometry
Word Originlate Middle English: from Italian, Spanish, and medieval Latin, from Arabic al-jabr ‘the reunion of broken parts’, ‘bone-setting’, from jabara ‘reunite, restore’. The original sense, ‘the surgical treatment of fractures’, probably came via Spanish; the mathematical sense comes from the title of a book, ‘ilm al-jabr wa'l-muqābala ‘the science of restoring what is missing and equating like with like’, by the mathematician al-K̲wārizmī (see algorithm).