term

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: tûm, IPA^(key): /tɜːm/
• (US) enPR: tûrm, IPA^(key): /tɝm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)m

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.”). Doublet of terminus.

term (plural terms)

1. Limitation, restriction or regulation. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
2. Any of the binding conditions or promises in a legal contract.

   Be sure to read the terms and conditions before signing.

3. That which limits the extent of anything; limit; extremity; bound; boundary.
   • Francis Bacon

     Corruption is a reciprocal to generation, and they two are as nature's two terms, or boundaries.

4. (geometry, archaic) A point, line, or superficies that limits.

   A line is the term of a superficies, and a superficies is the term of a solid.

5. A word or phrase, especially one from a specialised area of knowledge.

   "Algorithm" is a term used in computer science.

6. Relations among people.

   We are on friendly terms with each other.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 22, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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 had perhaps spared no pains to keep on good terms with the local constabulary.

7. Part of a year, especially one of the three parts of an academic year.
8. Duration of a set length; 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

9. (of a patent) The maximum period during which the patent can be maintained into force.
10. (archaic) A menstrual period.
    • 1660, Samuel Pepys, Diary

      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.

11. (mathematics) Any value (variable or constant) or expression separated from another term by a space or an appropriate character, in an overall expression or table.

    All the terms of this sum cancel out.

    One only term is odd in ( 12; 3; 4 ).

12. (logic) The subject or the predicate of a proposition; one of the three component parts of a syllogism, each one of which is used twice.
    • Sir W. Hamilton

      The subject and predicate of a proposition are, after Aristotle, together called its terms or extremes.

13. (astrology) 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.
14. (architecture) A quadrangular pillar, adorned on top with the figure of a head, as of a man, woman, or satyr.
15. (nautical) A piece of carved work placed under each end of the taffrail.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of J. Knowles to this entry?)

• blanket term
• collective term
• umbrella term

• idiom
• lexeme
• listeme
• word

term (third-person singular simple present terms, present participle terming, simple past and past participle termed)

1. To phrase a certain way; to name or call.
   • 1867, Charles Sanders Peirce, On a New List of Categories:

     Abstraction or prescision ought to be carefully distinguished from two other modes of mental separation, which may be termed discrimination and dissociation.

   • 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:

     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 magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.

• describe as, designate, dub, name, refer to; see also Thesaurus:denominate

term (not comparable)

1. (medicine, colloquial) Born or delivered at term.

   term neonate

• term on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Shortening of terminal

term (plural terms)

1. (computing, informal) terminal (computer program that emulates a physical terminal)

Short for terminate, termination, terminated employee, etc.

term (third-person singular simple present terms, present participle terming, simple past and past participle termed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To terminate one's employment

term (plural terms)

1. One whose employment has been terminated

• term in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• term in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

From ter.

term m (indefinite plural terma, definite singular terma, definite plural termat)

1. foundation, plot of land

• ter

• Audio

  (file)

term m (plural termen, diminutive termpje n)

1. term; A word or phrase, especially one from a specialised area of knowledge.
2. (mathematics) term; One of the addends in a sum

• termsgewijs

• remt

From Latin terminus, via French terme and English term

term m (definite singular termen, indefinite plural termer, definite plural termene)

1. a term (word or phrase)

• “term” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Latin terminus, via French terme and English term

term m (definite singular termen, indefinite plural termar, definite plural termane)

1. a term (word or phrase)

• “term” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

term c

1. a term[1] (a well-defined word or phrase, in a terminology)
2. (mathematics) a term[2] (an operand in addition or subtraction)
3. singular of termer (“thermae, Roman baths”) (a facility for bathing in ancient Rome)

• fackterm
• termbank
• terminologi