AXIOM
What does "AXIOM" mean?
A statement accepted as self-evidently true and taken as a starting point for reasoning.
Meanings
- A self-evident truth or accepted principle requiring no proof. It is an axiom of good design that form should follow function.
- In mathematics and logic, a foundational statement assumed without proof as a basis for a system. Euclid built all of his geometry from just five axioms. technical
Did you know?
- Around 300 BC, Euclid derived all of plane geometry from just five axioms - a feat so durable his 'Elements' was a standard textbook for over two thousand years.
- In 1931 Kurt Gödel proved that no set of axioms powerful enough for arithmetic can be both complete and consistent - there will always be true statements the axioms cannot prove.
Word origin
From Greek 'axioma' ('that which is thought worthy or self-evident'), from 'axios' ('worthy'); via Latin 'axioma' into English in the 15th-16th centuries.
Remember it
AXIOM holds AXIS - both come from Greek/Latin roots for a worthy, central thing. An axiom is the axis a whole argument turns on.
A little poem
We must begin by trusting something whole-
a line, a worth, a 'this is simply so.'
Every proof leans on a thing unproved.
tercet
Wordplay
- I tried to prove my favorite axiom. My professor stopped me: that's the whole point - if you could prove it, it wouldn't be one.
What it teaches
Every system of certainty rests on something it simply chose to believe.
Quick facts
What does AXIOM mean?
A statement accepted as self-evidently true and taken as a starting point for reasoning.
Is AXIOM a valid word?
Yes — AXIOM is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is AXIOM?
AXIOM has 5 letters and 3 syllables.
Where does AXIOM come from?
From Greek 'axioma' ('that which is thought worthy or self-evident'), from 'axios' ('worthy'); via Latin 'axioma' into English in the 15th-16th centuries.
What can AXIOM teach us?
Every system of certainty rests on something it simply chose to believe.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.