homology

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun the quality of being similar or corresponding in position or value or structure or function

Etymology

From Latin homologia, from Ancient Greek ὁμολογία (homología, “agreement, assent”); compare French homologie. By surface analysis, homo- + -logy. In topology, first used by French polymath Henri Poincaré, in the sense (close to what is now called a bordism) of a relation between manifolds mapped into a reference manifold: that is, the property of such manifolds that they form the boundary of a higher-dimensional manifold inside the reference manifold. Poincaré's version was eventually replaced by the more general singular homology, which is what mathematicians now mean by homology.

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