Engineering refers to the application of mathematics and the physical sciences to the needs of humanity and the development of technology. It commonly describes the area aboard a ship where the engine is located, actions controling the motion, shape, and/or substance of any physical object(s), and designates office area of the professional engineering staff, which gives the term a broader and more practical sense than a single short definition would suggest. Depending on context, it can also point to to design, construct or manage something as an engineer, to alter or construct something by means of genetic engineering, and to plan or achieve some goal by contrivance or guile; to wangle or finagle, so the category can cover literal uses, related ideas, and more figurative extensions of the same core meaning. Taken together, these meanings present Engineering as a flexible theme rather than a narrowly technical label, covering the central idea people usually mean when they use the word while still leaving room for closely related senses that appear in real language. Additional shades of meaning include to control motion of substance; to change motion and to work as an engineer, which reinforce how the category can stretch across adjacent but still recognizable uses of the same term.
