| I think a lot of these are real stretches. A synonym is a word that can reasonably stand in for another. So if you substitute word Y for word X and the meaning doesn't change (too much), then Y is a synonym for X. In that sense "gas" is not a good synonym for "smoke"; "dune" is not a good synonym for "hill"; "special" is not a good synonym for "distinguished"; "count" is not a good synonym for "duke"; etc. And speaking as a scientist, I find "technology" to be a much closer (but still imperfect) synonym to "science" than "research". First of all, research is done in a lot of disciplines that have nothing whatever to do with science, e.g., history, literary criticism, music theory, etc. etc. Also, research is the process by which science moves forward and is elucidated, but it is not science itself. Although I agree that not all science has to do with technology, there are at least various contexts in which the two words are used more-or-less interchangeably. Probably the best you can do for a synonym for "science", however, is "natural philosophy" -- a bit dated, but still serviceable. Or just omit that one -- not every word has a good synonym. |