term
That which limits the extent of anything; limit, extremity, bound, boundary, terminus.
Adjective
- Born or delivered at term.
- term neonate
Origin
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *terh₂-? Proto-Indo-European *ter-? Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Indo-European *térmn̥ Proto-Italic *termn̥ Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Italic *-nos Proto-Italic *term(e)nos Latin terminus Old French termebor. Middle English terme English term From Middle English terme, borrowed from Old French terme, from Latin terminus (“a bound, boundary, limit, end; in Medieval Latin, also a time, period, word, covenant, etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *térmn̥ (“stump, end, boundary”). Doublet of terminus and termon. Old English had termen, from the same source.
Noun Entry 2
- That which limits the extent of anything; limit, extremity, bound, boundary, terminus.
- Corruption is a reciprocal to generation, and they two are as nature's two terms, or boundaries. - 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A...
- At the decline of day, Winding above the mountain’s snowy term, New banners shone: […] - 1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe...
- "Alright, look...we can spend the holidays with your parents, but this time it will be on my terms."
- A chronological limitation or restriction, a limited timespan.
- The term of a lease agreement is the period of time during which the lease is effective, and may be fixed, periodic, or of indefinite duration.
- Any of the binding conditions or promises in a legal contract.
- Be sure to read the terms and conditions before signing.
- Specifically, the conditions in a legal contract that specify the price and also how and when payment must be made.
- Q: What are your company's terms? A: Net thirty, cash or check. [This answer means that the net total must be paid within 30 days; see Net D.]
- The latest models are available now, on the lowest terms you'll find anywhere, guaranteed.
- The Cabin is large and commodious, well calculated for the Accommodation of Paſengers. Merchandiſe, Produce, &c. carried on the loweſt Terms. - 1793 May 17, John Constable and James Piper, advertisement for a...
- A point, line, or superficies that limits.
- A line is the term of a superficies, and a superficies is the term of a solid.
- A word or phrase (e.g., noun phrase, verb phrase, open compound), especially one from a specialised area of knowledge; a name for a concept.
- "Algorithm" is a term used in computer science.
- The noun phrase "red blood cell", the acronym "RBC", and the word "erythrocyte" are synonymous terms.
- Relations among people.
- We are on friendly terms with each other.
- Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part.[…]Next day she[…]tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head. Then, thwarted, the wretched creature went to the police for help; she was versed in the...
- Part of a year, especially one of the divisions of an academic year.
- From 1960 to 1963 I spent my terms at Cambridge University but was back home for the vacs[.] - 1983, Bill Oddie, Gone Birding, London: Methuen, page 45:
- Duration of officeholding, or its limit; period in office of fixed length.
- He was sentenced to a term of six years in prison.
- near-term, mid-term and long-term goals
- the term allowed to a debtor to discharge his debt
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The time during which legal courts are open.
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Certain days on which rent is paid.
- With respect to a pregnancy, the usual duration of gestation for the given species (for example, nine months in humans); (metonymic) the end of this duration: the timepoint at which birth usually happens (for example, in humans, approximately 40 weeks from conception), defining the due date.
- A pregnancy didn't come to term.
- at term
- preterm
- The maximum period during which the patent can be maintained into force.
- A menstrual period.
- My wife, after the absence of her terms for seven weeks, gave me hopes of her being with child, but on the last day of the year she hath them again. - 1660, Samuel Pepys, Diary:
Forms
Synonyms
Hyponyms
blanket term collective term umbrella term trimester semester quarter word phrase name synonym antonym meronym holonym troponym eponym retronym toponym contranym anthroponym pragmonym ergonym colloquialism vulgarism honorific
Related
terminal terminate terminographer terminography terminologic terminological terminologically terminology idiom lexeme lexical item lexicalization listeme -onym
Derived
absolute term abstract term at term authorised term authorized term biterm boundary term catch-all term come to terms common term concrete term coordinate term cosmological term counterterm cross term decreasing term assurance defined term Easter term fixed-term fixed term fixed-term contract full term generic term Gibbons-Hawking-York boundary term
Noun computing, engineering
- A computer program that emulates a physical terminal.
Origin
Clipping of terminal.
Forms
Synonyms
Hyponyms
word phrase name synonym antonym meronym holonym troponym eponym retronym toponym contranym anthroponym pragmonym ergonym colloquialism vulgarism honorific pejorative dysphemism euphemism expletive eulogism Americanism
Related
Noun Entry 4
- One whose employment has been terminated
Origin
Short for terminate, termination, terminated employee, etc.
Forms
Synonyms
Hyponyms
word phrase name synonym antonym meronym holonym troponym eponym retronym toponym contranym anthroponym pragmonym ergonym colloquialism vulgarism honorific pejorative dysphemism euphemism expletive eulogism Americanism
Related
Verb ambitransitive, informal
- To terminate someone's employment.
- To delete someone's account.
Forms
Synonyms
Verb Entry 6
- To phrase a certain way; to name or call.
- Abstraction or prescision ought to be carefully distinguished from two other modes of mental separation, which may be termed discrimination and dissociation. - 1867, Charles Sanders Peirce, On a New List of Categories:
- The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless...