schema

[skee-muh] /ˈski mə/

noun, plural schemata

[skee-muh-tuh or, sometimes, skee-mah-tuh, ski-] /ˈski mə tə or, sometimes, skiˈmɑ tə, skɪ-/ (Show IPA), schemas.

a diagram, plan, or scheme.

an underlying organizational pattern or structure; conceptual framework:

A schema provides the basis by which someone relates to the events he or she experiences.

(in Kantian epistemology) a concept, similar to a universal but limited to phenomenal knowledge, by which an object of knowledge or an idea of pure reason may be apprehended.

Origin

1790-1800; < Greek schêma form

Examples from the web for schemas

Proposed that schemas may vary within wide limits while the underlying schemes from which the schemas stem remain stable.

British Dictionary definitions for schemas

schema

/ˈskiːmə/

noun (pl) -mata (-mətə)

a plan, diagram, or scheme

(in the philosophy of Kant) a rule or principle that enables the understanding to apply its categories and unify experience: universal succession is the schema of causality

(psychol) a mental model of aspects of the world or of the self that is structured in such a way as to facilitate the processes of cognition and perception

(logic) an expression using metavariables that may be replaced by object language expressions to yield a well-formed formula. Thus A = A is an axiom schema for identity, representing the infinite number of axioms, x = x, y = y, z = z, etc

Word Origin

C19: from Greek: form

Word Origin and History for schemas

schema

plural schemata, 1796, in Kantian philosophy ("a product of the imagination intermediary between an image and a concept"), from Greek skhema (see scheme (n.)). Meaning "diagrammatic representation" is from 1890; general sense of "hypothetical outline" is by 1939.

schemas in Medicine

schema sche·ma (skē'mə)
n. pl. sche·mas or sche·ma·ta (skē-mä'tə, skĭ-māt'ə)

A diagrammatic representation; an outline or a model.
A pattern imposed on complex reality or experience to assist in explaining it, mediate perception, or guide response.