Knowledge, science, learning, erudition, scholarship, information, lore are comparable when they mean what is known or can be known, usually by an individual but sometimes by human beings in general.
Knowledge applies not only to a body of facts gathered by study, investigation, observation, or experience but also to a body of ideas acquired by inference from such facts or accepted on good grounds as truths.
Science (see also ART 3 ) is occasionally employed as a close synonym of knowledge but ordinarily it applies only to a body of systematized knowledge dealing with facts gathered over a long period and by numerous persons as a result of observation and experiment and with the general truths or laws derived by inference from such facts. The term usually connotes more exactness and more rigorous testing of conclusions than knowledge does and therefore is often used to denote knowledge whose certainty cannot be questioned.
Learning specifically applies to knowledge gained by long and close study not only in the schools or universities but by individual research and investigation; it may be used of those who are engaged in the study of science, but it is more often employed in reference to those who devote themselves to the study of the humanities (as languages, literature, history, and philosophy).
Erudition carries a stronger implication of the possession of profound, recondite, or bookish knowledge than does learning <all the encyclopedic erudition of the middle ages —Lowes > but often the terms are employed as if they were equivalent in meaning.
Scholarship implies the possession of the learning characteristic of the trained scholar; the term usually suggests mastery in detail of a field of study or investigation, the exhibition of such qualities as accuracy and skill in carrying on research intended to extend knowledge in that field, and the display of powers of critical analysis in the interpretation of the material that is gathered.
Information usually denotes a kind or items of knowledge gathered from various sources (as observation, other persons, or books) and accepted as truth; the term carries no specific implication regarding the extent, character, or soundness of that knowledge; often it suggests no more than a collection of data or facts either discrete or integrated into a body of knowledge.
Lore is occasionally used in place of learning, but ordinarily it applies to a body of special or out-of-the-way knowledge concerning a particular subject possessed by an individual or by a group and is primarily traditional and anecdotal rather than scientific in character.