The word ‘science’ has three possible uses: a first in which it is synonymous with ‘knowledge’, a second in which it means any systematized body of knowledge, and a third referring to a particular set of knowledge-related practices those arose in early modern Europe. What could it mean to describe the last of these—modern science—as ‘Western’? A first possible meaning is geographical, suggesting that science is practised in ‘Western’ countries. A second is historical, holding that modern science is Western insofar as it began in Europe. A third is cultural, holding that modern science has features not shared by knowledge-related practices elsewhere. A fourth possible meaning of the phrase is a ‘genus and species’ one: distinguishing differing forms of science from one another.