Definition of "term"

term¹

/tɜːm/

noun
plural terms
1. That which limits the extent of anything; limit, extremity, bound, boundary, terminus.
  Quotations
  Corruption is a reciprocal to generation, and they two are as nature's two terms, or boundaries.
  1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […]
  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 Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, page 268
2. A chronological limitation or restriction, a limited timespan.
3. Any of the binding conditions or promises in a legal contract.
4. Specifically, the conditions in a legal contract that specify the price and also how and when payment must be made.
  Quotations
  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 packet-boat between Chestertown and Baltimore, Chestertown, Maryland, File:Packet_Schooner.jpg
5. (geometry, archaic) A point, line, or superficies that limits.
6. 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.
7. Relations among people.
  Quotations
  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.
  1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
8. Part of a year, especially one of the divisions of an academic year.
9. Duration of officeholding, or its limit; period in office of fixed length.
  Quotations
  “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.
  2023 October 22, Ruth Michaelson, quoting Ehud Barak, “Netanyahu told to ‘quit now’ as ex-leaders pin blame on dysfunctional government”, in The Observer‎
  1. The time during which legal courts are open.
  2. Certain days on which rent is paid.
10. With respect to a pregnancy, the period during which birth usually happens (approximately 40 weeks from conception).
11. (of a patent) The maximum period during which the patent can be maintained into force.
12. (archaic) A menstrual period.
  Quotations
  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
13. (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.
14. (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.
  Quotations
  The subject and predicate of a proposition are, after Aristotle, together called its terms or extremes.
  1859–1860, William Hamilton, edited by H[enry] L[ongueville] Mansel and John Veitch, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons
15. (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.
16. (art) A statue of the upper body, sometimes without the arms, ending in a pillar or pedestal.
  Quotations
  The pillers that haue bolſtered vp thoſe tearmes,Are falne in cluſters at my conquering feet.
  c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, Act III, scene iii
  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.
  1773, Joshua Reynolds, edited by John Ingamells and John Edgcumbe, The Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Yale, published 2000, page 42
17. (nautical) A piece of carved work placed under each end of the taffrail.
verb
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.
  Quotations
  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 magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.
  2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist
adjective
not comparable
1. (medicine, colloquial) Born or delivered at term.

term²

/tɜːm/

noun
plural terms
1. (computing, informal) A computer program that emulates a physical terminal.

term³

/tɜːm/

verb
third-person singular simple present terms, present participle terming, simple past and past participle termed
1. (transitive, intransitive) To terminate one's employment
noun
plural terms
1. One whose employment has been terminated

Definition of "term"

term1

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations

adjective

term2

noun

term3

verb

noun

term¹

term²

term³