method

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μέθοδος (methodos, “pursuit of knowledge, investigation, mode of prosecuting such inquiry, system”), from μετά (meta, “after”) + ὁδός (hodos, “way, motion, journey”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• IPA: /ˈmɛθəd/
• Hyphenation: me‧thod

Noun

method (plural methods)

1. A process by which a task is completed; a way of doing something.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 3, The Mirror and the Lamp:

     One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.

   If one method doesn't work, you should ask a friend to help you.

   This method saves me a lot of time.

2. A type of theatrical acting wherein the actor utilizes his personal emotions from personal experience to portray a scripted scene.
3. (programming, object-oriented) A subroutine or function belonging to a class or object.
4. (slang) Marijuana.

Derived terms

A process by which a task is completed

comparative method historical method methodical methodology

scholarly method scientific method philosophical method

(programming, object-oriented) A subroutine or function of a class or object

convenience method

virtual method

Translations

process by which a task is completed

• Arabic: طريقة (ʈarīqa) f, منهج (ar) (minhaj)
• Armenian: եղանակ (hy) (eġanak), մեթոդ (hy) (met’od), միջոց (hy) (miǰoc’), կերպ (hy) (kerp)
• Asturian: métodu (ast) m
• Catalan: mètode (ca) m
• Chinese: 方法 (fāngfǎ)
• Czech: metoda (cs) f
• Dutch: methode (nl) f
• Esperanto: metodo (eo)
• Finnish: menetelmä (fi), metodi (fi)
• French: méthode (fr) f
• Galician: método (gl) m
• German: Art und Weise (de) f, Methode (de) f
• Greek: μέθοδος (el) (méθoδos) f
• Hebrew: מתודה (metoda) f
• Hungarian: módszer (hu)
• Icelandic: aðferð (is) f, háttur (is) m, skipulag (is) n
• Italian: metodo (it) m

• Japanese: 方法 (hōhō), 方式 (hōsiki)
• Korean: 방법 (bangbeob)
• Latin: via (la), methodus (la) f
• Latvian: metode (lv) f
• Macedonian: метод (mk) (metód) m, метода (mk) (metóda) f
• Maori: pēheatanga (mi), pēwheatanga (mi)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: metode (nb) m

  Nynorsk: metode (nn) m

• Persian: متد (fa) (metod), روش (fa) (raveš), شیوه (fa) (šive), طریقه (fa) (tariqe)
• Portuguese: método (pt) m
• Romanian: metodă (ro) f
• Russian: метод (ru) (métod) m
• Scottish Gaelic: cor (gd) m, modh (gd) m and f, dòigh (gd) f
• Spanish: método (es) m
• Swedish: metod (sv) c, tillvägagångssätt (sv) n
• Telugu: పద్ధతి (paddhati)
• Volapük: metod (vo)
• Zulu: icebo (zu) 5/6, indlela (zu) 9/10, isu (zu) 5/6

type of acting

• Finnish: metodinäytteleminen (fi)
• French: La Méthode f
• Greek: μέθοδος (el) (méθoδos) f

• Romanian: metodă (ro) f
• Scottish Gaelic: cor (gd) m
• Spanish: method (es)

(programming) subroutine or function in object-oriented languages

• Czech: metoda (cs) f
• German: Methode (de) f
• Hungarian: metódus (hu), tagfüggvény (hu)

• Icelandic: aðferð (is) f
• Italian: metodo (it) m
• Spanish: método (es) m

Anagrams

• mothed