Meaning

(dated) Now chiefly home economics: the art or science of household management, especially relating to the appropriate organization of resources; housekeeping..

Definitions by Sense

1. (dated) Now chiefly home economics: the art or science of household management, especially relating to the appropriate organization of resources; housekeeping.
2. (by extension, social sciences) The study of resource and wealth allocation, consumption, and distribution, of capital and investment, and of management of the factors of production.
3. (obsolete) plural of economic (“one who is skilled in household management; (Christianity, historical) one who manages the income of a vacant benefice”).

Example Sentences

Thus Logick, Phyſicks, Metaphyſicks, are the burden of Volumes, and the dayly entertainment of the Diſputing Schools: vvhile the more profitable doctrines of the Heavens, Meteors, Minerals, Animals; as alſo the more practical ones of Politicks, and Oeconomicks, are ſcarce ſo much as glanc'd at.

[H]e now furthermore contrived the scheme of a little Club, where monthly over a frugal dinner some reunion might take place; […] The scheme was approved by the persons concerned: I have a copy of the Original Regulations, probably drawn up by Sterling, a very solid lucid piece of economics; […]

Mary studied economics for five years before going into banking.

The Annals of the French Republic, from the Eſtabliſhment of the Conſtitution of the third Year, 6 vols. 8vo.— […] In the fourth [volume] are military pieces; in the fifth and ſixth, various literary intelligence, and memoranda reſpecting commerce, œconomics, &c. may be found.

[L]et him accept and hive every fact of chemistry, natural history, and economics; the more he has, the less is he willing to spare any one.

But it is characteristic of economics that valuable and interesting work may be performed and steady progress made for many years, and yet that the results will be almost useless for practical purposes until a certain degree of exactness and perfection has been reached. Half-baked theory is not of much value in practice, though it may be half-way towards final perfection.

Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists' most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too.

Mainstream economics is increasingly sympathetic. In late 2012 the International Monetary Fund updated its institutional view on capital controls, noting that more financially open economies did worse in the crisis of 2007-09.

Word Forms

• œconomics

Synonyms for economics

Related Words

When Should You Use Economics?

Use economics when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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