The science of the world or universe; or a treatise relating to the structure and parts of the system of creation, the elements of bodies, the modifications of material things, the laws of motion, and the order and course of nature
The study of final causes, reasons (design), and ends in the material universe Or, the study of the essential natures of contingent material beings, individually and concordantly, as an ordered reality
the branch of astrophysics that studies the origin and evolution and structure of the universe the metaphysical study of the origin and nature of the universe
The study of the origin, evolution, structure and composition of the Universe as a whole
[n] A philosophy or set of beliefs regarding the origin and general structure of the universe