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define

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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English

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Etymology

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

  • IPA(key): /dɪˈfaɪn/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: de‧fine
  • Rhymes: -aɪn

Verb

define (third-person singular simple present defines, present participle defining, simple past and past participle defined)

  1. To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly.
    the defining power of an optical instrument
  2. (obsolete) To settle, decide (an argument etc.) [16th–17th c.]
  3. To express the essential nature of something.
    I define myself as a techno-anarchist.
    Your past mistakes do not define who you are.
    • 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.
  4. To state the meaning of a word, phrase, sign, or symbol.
    The textbook defined speed as velocity divided by time.
  5. To describe, explain, or make definite and clear; used to request the listener or other person to elaborate or explain more clearly his or her intended meaning of a word or expression.
    Person 1: Is she good at math?
    Person 2: Define "good." If you mean if she is faster than the average middle schooler at multiplication, then yes. If you mean if she is able to do multivariable calculus, then no.
  6. To demark sharply the outlines or limits of an area or concept.
    to define the legal boundaries of a property
    • 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?
  7. (mathematics) To establish the referent of a term or notation.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

define (plural defines)

  1. (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.

Translations

macro that replaces one text string with another

Further reading

Anagrams

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Galician

Verb

define

  1. inflection of definir:
    1. third-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative

Portuguese

Verb

define

  1. inflection of definir:
    1. third-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /deˈfine/ [d̪eˈfi.ne]
  • Rhymes: -ine
  • Syllabification: de‧fi‧ne

Verb

define

  1. inflection of definir:
    1. third-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative

Turkish

Etymology 1

From Ottoman Turkish دفینه (define), from Arabic دَفِينَة (dafīna), from دَفَنَ (dafana, “to bury”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /de.fiːˈne/
  • Hyphenation: de‧fi‧ne

Noun

define (definite accusative defineyi, plural defineler)

  1. treasure trove
Declension
More information singular, plural ...

References

  • “define”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu
  • Redhouse, James W. (1890), “دفینه”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon‎, Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 907

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French défini, past participle of définir.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /de.fiˈne/
  • Hyphenation: de‧fi‧ne

Adjective

define

  1. (bodybuilding) defined
    define vücut ― a defined body
Derived terms
  • define etmek
  • define olmak
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