define
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English definen, from Old French definer, variant of definir, from Latin dēfīniō (“limit, settle, define”), from dē + fīniō (“set a limit, bound, end”)
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
define (third-person singular simple present defines, present participle defining, simple past and past participle defined)
- To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly.
- Sir Isaac Newton
- Rings […] very distinct and well defined.
- 2013 July-August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.
- the defining power of an optical instrument
- Sir Isaac Newton
- (obsolete) To settle, decide (an argument etc.) [16th-17th c.]
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.3:
- These warlike Champions, all in armour shine, / Assembled were in field the chalenge to define.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.3:
- To express the essential nature of something.
- 2013 May-June, Brian Hayes, “Crinkly Curves”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 178:
- Cantor defined a one-to-one correspondence between the points of the square and the points of the line segment. Every point in the square was associated with a single point in the segment; every point in the segment was matched with a unique point in the square.
- I define myself as a techno-anarchist.
- To state the meaning of a word, phrase, sign, or symbol.
- The textbook defined speed as velocity divided by time.
- To describe, explain, or make definite and clear.
- To demark sharply the outlines or limits of an area or concept.
- 2012 March-April, Jan Sapp, “Race Finished”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 164:
- Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution. But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?
- to define the legal boundaries of a property
- (mathematics) To establish the referent of a term or notation.
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Terms related to define
Translations[edit]
to determine
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express the essential nature of
state meaning of
describe, explain, make definite and clear
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demark the limits of
Noun[edit]
define (plural defines)
- (programming) A kind of macro in source code that replaces one text string with another wherever it occurs.
- 1996, James Gosling, Henry McGilton, The Java Language Environment
- From the computer programming perspective, Java looks like C and C++ while discarding the overwhelming complexities of those languages, such as typedefs, defines, preprocessor, unions, pointers, and multiple inheritance.
- 1999, Ian Joyner, Objects unencapsulated: Java, Eiffel, and C++ (page 309)
- Anyone who has attempted to do OO programming in a conventional language using defines will find out that it is impossible to realize the benefits easily, if at all, without compiler support.
- 1996, James Gosling, Henry McGilton, The Java Language Environment
Translations[edit]
macro that replaces one text string with another
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Further reading[edit]
- define in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- define in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
Anagrams[edit]
Galician[edit]
Verb[edit]
define
Portuguese[edit]
Verb[edit]
define
- third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present indicative of definir
- second-person singular (tu, sometimes used with você) affirmative imperative of definir
Spanish[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
define
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Mathematics
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Programming
- Galician non-lemma forms
- Galician verb forms
- Portuguese non-lemma forms
- Portuguese verb forms
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Spanish non-lemma forms
- Spanish verb forms
- Spanish forms of verbs ending in -ir
