term
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: tûm
ipa: /tɜːm/
enpr: tûrm
ipa: /tɝm/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)m
Forms: form: terms
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: Corruption is a reciprocal to generation, and they two are as nature's two terms, or boundaries.
ref: 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
text: At the decline of day,
Winding above the mountain’s snowy term,
New banners shone: […]
ref: 1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 268:
text: "Alright, look...we can spend the holidays with your parents, but this time it will be on my terms."
glosses: That which limits the extent of anything; limit, extremity, bound, boundary, terminus.
examples: text: 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.
glosses: A chronological limitation or restriction, a limited timespan.
examples: text: Be sure to read the terms and conditions before signing.
glosses: Any of the binding conditions or promises in a legal contract.
examples: text: 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.]
text: The latest models are available now, on the lowest terms you'll find anywhere, guaranteed.
text: The Cabin is large and commodious, well calculated for the Accommodation of Paſengers. Merchandiſe, Produce, &c. carried on the loweſt Terms.
ref: 1793 May 17, John Constable and James Piper, advertisement for a packet-boat between Chestertown and Baltimore, Chestertown, Maryland, :File:Packet_Schooner.jpg
glosses: Specifically, the conditions in a legal contract that specify the price and also how and when payment must be made.
examples: text: A line is the term of a superficies, and a superficies is the term of a solid.
topics: geometry
mathematics
sciences
glosses: A point, line, or superficies that limits.
examples: text: "Algorithm" is a term used in computer science.
text: The noun phrase "red blood cell", the acronym "RBC", and the word "erythrocyte" are synonymous terms.
glosses: 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.
examples: text: We are on friendly terms with each other.
text: 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 law, and perhaps had spared no pains to keep on good terms with the local constabulary.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 361:
glosses: Relations among people.
glosses: Part of a year, especially one of the divisions of an academic year.
examples: text: He was sentenced to a term of six years in prison.
text: near-term, mid-term and long-term goals
text: the term allowed to a debtor to discharge his debt
text: “I don’t believe that the people trust Netanyahu to lead when he is under the burden of such a devastating event that just happened under his term,” he told the Observer.
ref: 2023 October 22, Ruth Michaelson, quoting Ehud Barak, “Netanyahu told to ‘quit now’ as ex-leaders pin blame on dysfunctional government”, in The Observer, →ISSN:
glosses: Duration of officeholding, or its limit; period in office of fixed length.
glosses: Duration of officeholding, or its limit; period in office of fixed length.
The time during which legal courts are open.
glosses: Duration of officeholding, or its limit; period in office of fixed length.
Certain days on which rent is paid.
examples: text: A pregnancy didn't come to term.
text: at term
text: preterm
text: postterm
glosses: 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.
glosses: The maximum period during which the patent can be maintained into force.
raw_tags: of a patent
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1660, Samuel Pepys, Diary:
glosses: A menstrual period.
examples: text: All the terms of this sum cancel out.
text: One only term is odd in ( 12; 3; 4 ).
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: Any value (variable or constant) or expression separated from another term by a space or an appropriate character, in an overall expression or table.
examples: text: The subject and predicate of a proposition are, after Aristotle, together called its terms or extremes.
ref: 1859–1860, William Hamilton, edited by H[enry] L[ongueville] Mansel and John Veitch, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:
topics: human-sciences
logic
mathematics
philosophy
sciences
glosses: The subject or the predicate of a proposition; one of the three component parts of a syllogism, each one of which is used twice.
topics: astrology
human-sciences
mysticism
philosophy
sciences
glosses: An essential dignity in which unequal segments of every astrological sign have internal rulerships which affect the power and integrity of each planet in a natal chart.
examples: text: The pillers that haue bolſtered vp thoſe tearmes,
Are falne in cluſters at my conquering feet.
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:
text: You have been already informed, I have no doubt, of the subject which we have chosen: the adorning a Term of Hymen with festoons of flowers.
ref: 1773, Joshua Reynolds, edited by John Ingamells and John Edgcumbe, The Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Yale, published 2000, page 42:
topics: art
arts
glosses: A statue of the upper body, sometimes without the arms, ending in a pillar or pedestal.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A piece of carved work placed under each end of the taffrail.
Synonyms: word: term
Hyponyms: word: blanket term
word: collective term
word: umbrella term
sense: part of a year
word: trimester
sense: part of a year
word: semester
sense: part of a year
word: quarter
word: word
word: phrase
word: name
word: synonym
word: antonym
word: meronym
word: holonym
word: troponym
word: eponym
word: retronym
word: toponym
word: contranym
word: anthroponym
word: pragmonym
word: ergonym
word: colloquialism
word: vulgarism
word: honorific
word: pejorative
word: dysphemism
word: euphemism
word: expletive
word: eulogism
word: Americanism
word: Anglicism
word: Arabism
word: Germanism
word: Grecism
word: Gallicism
word: Frenchism
word: Hebraism
word: Hispanism
word: Italianism
word: Polonism
word: Russianism
word: Slavism
Derived terms: absolute term
abstract term
at term
authorised term
authorized term
boundary term
come to terms
common term
concrete term
coordinate term
cosmological term
cross term
decreasing term assurance
defined term
Easter term
fixed-term
fixed-term contract
full term
generic term
Gibbons-Hawking-York boundary term
half-term
half term
Hilary term
INCO term
increasing term assurance
index term
inkhorn term
in the long term
in the short term
January term
J-term
keep term
lambda term
late-term
Lent term
level term assurance
loan term
long term
long-term
long term evolution
long-term memory
long-term potentiation
Long Vacation term
Long Vac term
major term
medium-term
Michaelmas term
middle term
midterm
mid-term
mid-term break
minor term
near-term
near term
on long-term sick
Paschal term
protected term
representation term
rule of the shorter term
search term
short term
short-term
short-term memory
skunked term
solar term
technical term
term assurance
term day
term deposit
term investment
term limit
term-limit
term loan
term logic
term of address
term of art
term of endearment
term of notice
term of venery
term of years
term of years absolute
term of years determinable
term out
term paper
term phrase
terms and conditions
term sheet
term time
term-trotter
time term
trade term
Trinity term
unauthorised term
unauthorized term
Related terms: word: terminal
word: terminate
word: terminographer
word: terminography
word: terminologic
word: terminological
word: terminologically
word: terminology
word: idiom
word: lexeme
word: lexical item
word: lexicalization
word: listeme
word: -onym