Mathematics is the long word for "math," or the science of numbers and shapes and what they mean. Most people need mathematics everyday to count and measure.
Mathematics is technically a plural noun — geometry, algebra, calculus: all of these are mathematics — but usually it is treated as singular. That's why a person says, mathematics is my favorite subjects, not mathematics are my favorite subject. The word mathematics comes from the Greek word manthanein, meaning "to learn."
Definitions of mathematics
noun
a science (or group of related sciences) dealing with the logic of quantity and shape and arrangement
the branch of pure mathematics that deals only with the properties of a figure X that hold for every figure into which X can be transformed with a one-to-one correspondence that is continuous in both directions
a branch of applied mathematics concerned with the collection and interpretation of quantitative data and the use of probability theory to estimate population parameters
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