>The definition of topology leads to the following mathematical joke (Renteln and Dundes 2005):
>
>Q: What is a topologist? A: Someone who cannot distinguish between a doughnut and a coffee cup.
>> https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Topology.html
```
# Topology | Definition of Topology by Merriam-Webster
> ## Excerpt
> topographic study of a particular place; specifically : the history of a region as indicated by its topography… See the full definition
---
1 **:** [topographic](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/topographic) study of a particular place specifically **:** the history of a region as indicated by its [topography](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/topography)
2a(1) **:** a branch of mathematics concerned with those properties of geometric configurations (such as point sets) which are unaltered by elastic deformations (such as a stretching or a twisting) that are homeomorphisms
(2) **:** the set of all open subsets of a [topological](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/topological) space
b **:** [configuration](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/configuration) topology of a molecule topology of a magnetic field
