topology

Etymology

From Late Latin topologia, from Ancient Greek τόπος (tópos, “place, locality”) + -(o)logy (“study of, a branch of knowledge”).

noun

1. (mathematics, uncountable) The branch of mathematics dealing with those properties of a geometrical object (of arbitrary dimensionality) that are unchanged by continuous deformations (such as stretching, bending, etc., without tearing or gluing).
   1970 [Addison-Wesley], Stephen Willard, General Topology, 2012, Dover, page v, This book is designed to develop the fundamental concepts of general topology which are the basic tools of working mathematicians in a variety of fields.
   1974 [Crane, Russak & Co.], H. Graham Flegg, From Geometry to Topology, 2001, Dover, page v, Many university courses in topology plunge immediately into a formalized and entirely abstract presentation of topological concepts.
2. (topology) Any collection τ of subsets of a given set X that contains both the empty set and X, and which is closed under finitary intersections and arbitrary unions.
   A set X equipped with a topology τ is called a topological space and denoted (X,τ).
   The subsets of a set X which constitute a topology are called the open sets of X.
   It is easy to verify that the topology generated by these basic open sets coincides with the definition of the topology on widehat V above, for the Zariski topology and the sheaf of functions operatorname val(f),f regular. 2016, Ehud Hrushovski, François Loeser, Non-Archimedean Tame Topology and Stably Dominated Types (AM-192), Princeton University Press, page 43
3. (medicine) The anatomical structure of part of the body.
4. (computing) The arrangement of nodes in a communications network.
5. (technology) The properties of a particular technological embodiment that are not affected by differences in the physical layout or form of its application.
6. (topography) The topographical study of geographic locations or given places in relation to their history.
7. (dated) The art of, or method for, assisting the memory by associating the thing or subject to be remembered with some place.