We introduce topological rewriting systems as a generalisation of abstract rewriting systems, where we replace the set of terms by a topological space. Abstract rewriting systems correspond to topological rewriting systems for the discrete topology. We introduce the topological confluence property as an approximation of the confluence property. Using a representation of linear topological rewriting systems with continuous reduction operators, we show that the topological confluence property is characterised by lattice operations. Using this characterisation, we show that standard bases induce topologically confluent rewriting systems on formal power series. Finally, we investigate duality for reduction operators that we relate to series representations and syntactic algebras. In particular, we use duality for proving that an algebra is syntactic or not.The binary relation → denotes to rewriting steps and * → is it reflexive transitive closure, so that it denotes to rewriting sequences. Under hypotheses of termination and confluence, computing normal forms, that are irreducible terms, provides algorithmic applications, for instance to the decision of the word problem for monoids or the ideal membership problem for polynomial algebras. It also provides effective methods for computing linear bases, Hilbert series, homotopy bases or free resolutions [1,18,23]. These methods induce constructive proofs of coherence theorems, which provide an explicit description of the action of a monoid on a category [15], or of homological properties, such as finite derivation type, finite homological type [19,30], or Koszulness [27].In the situation of rewriting systems on linear structures, a relation is usually oriented by rewriting one monomial into the linear combination of other monomials. There exist three main approaches for selecting the rewritten monomial, the most classical one consisting in using a monomial order. From this approach, Gröbner bases are characterised in terms of the confluence property: a set of polynomials is a Gröbner of the ideal it generates if and only if it induces a confluent rewriting system. As a consequence, effective confluence-based criteria were introduced for checking if a given set is a Gröbner basis or one of its numerous adaptations to (polynomial, free Lie, tensor) algebras [7,8,25,29], skew-polynomial rings [22] or free algebraic operads [13]. Another approach consists in selecting the reducible monomials with more flexible orders than monomial ones, which may be used for proving Koszulness of algebras for which Gröbner bases give no result [17]. Finally, rewriting steps may be described in a functional manner [6,16,21], so that linear rewriting systems are represented by reduction operators. From this approach, the confluence property is characterised by means of lattice operations [10], which provides various applications to computer algebra and homological algebra: construction of Gröbner bases [11], computation of syzygies [12] or proofs of Koszulness [4,5,9,24].Rewriting methods base...