Meanings
present singular third person defines · participle present defining · participle past defined · past defined
- To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly.
the defining power of an optical instrument
2 more examples
Rings[…]very distinct and well defined.
1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLCTurbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.
2013 July-August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name) - To express the essential nature of something.
I define myself as a techno-anarchist.
2 more examples
Your past mistakes do not define who you are.
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.
2013 May-June, Brian Hayes, “Crinkly Curves”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 178 - 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.
- To demark sharply the outlines or limits of an area or concept.
to define the legal boundaries of a property
2 more examples
Neither Marx nor Engels ever clearly defined the concept of class, and the last chapter of Volume III of Capital, which was to treat of this question, breaks off after three or four paragraphs.
1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume I: The Founders, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: powstanie (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 353Few 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?
2012 March-April, Jan Sapp, “Race Finished”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 164
plural defines
- computingA kind of macro in source code that replaces one text string with another wherever it occurs.
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.
1999, Ian Joyner, Objects unencapsulated: Java, Eiffel, and C++, page 3091 more example
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.
1996, James Gosling, Henry McGilton, The Java Language Environment
Synonyms & antonyms
verbdetermine the essential quality of
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latindēfīniō“limit, settle, define”
- Old Frenchdefiner
- Middle Englishdefinen
- Englishdefine
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”).
More words from Middle English, Old French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek ὁρίζω
- ὁρίζω (horízō)to determine
Bulgarian опреде́лям, изразявам
- опреде́лям (opredéljam)to determine
- изразявам (izrazjavam)express the essential nature of
- дефинирам (definiram)state meaning of
- формулирам (formuliram)state meaning of
- очертавам (očertavam)describe, explain, make definite and clear
- обозначавам (oboznačavam)demark the limits of
Catalan definir
- definirstate meaning of
Chinese Mandarin 界定, 定义
- 界定 (jièdìng)express the essential nature of
- 定义 (dìngyì)state meaning of
Czech definovat
- definovatstate meaning of
Danish definere
- definerestate meaning of
Dutch bepalen, determineren
- bepalento determine
- determinerento determine
- definiërenexpress the essential nature of
- kenschetsenexpress the essential nature of
- karakteriserenexpress the essential nature of
- definiërenstate meaning of
- beschrijvendescribe, explain, make definite and clear
- omschrijvendescribe, explain, make definite and clear
- bepalendemark the limits of
- afbakenendemark the limits of
Esperanto determini, kaŭzi
- determinito determine
- kaŭziexpress the essential nature of
- difinistate meaning of
Finnish määrittää, määritellä
- määrittääto determine
- määritelläto determine
- määritelläexpress the essential nature of
- määrittääexpress the essential nature of
- määritellästate meaning of
- selvittäädescribe, explain, make definite and clear
- täsmentäädescribe, explain, make definite and clear
- määritellädemark the limits of
- rajatademark the limits of
- define-makromacro that replaces one text string with another
French déterminer, définir
- déterminerto determine
- définirstate meaning of
- définirdemark the limits of
German bestimmen, definieren
- bestimmento determine
- definierenstate meaning of
- definierendescribe, explain, make definite and clear
Hebrew הגדיר
- הגדיר (higdír)to determine
Hungarian definiál, meghatároz
- definiálstate meaning of
- meghatározstate meaning of
Irish sonraigh
- sonraighto determine
Italian definire, determinare
- definireto determine
- determinareto determine
- definireexpress the essential nature of
- definirestate meaning of
- definiredescribe, explain, make definite and clear
- descriveredescribe, explain, make definite and clear
Japanese 定義する
- 定義する (teigi suru)state meaning of
Korean 정의하다
- 정의하다 (jeong'uihada)state meaning of
Latvian definēt
- definētstate meaning of
Māori tautuhi
- tautuhito determine
Norwegian Bokmål definere
- definerestate meaning of
Persian تعریفتن
- تعریفتنto determine
Polish określać, określić
- określaćto determine
- określićto determine
- definiowaćstate meaning of
- zdefiniowaćstate meaning of
Portuguese definir, definir
- definirto determine
- definirexpress the essential nature of
- definirstate meaning of
Romanian defini
- definistate meaning of
Russian определя́ть, определи́ть
- определя́ть (opredeljátʹ)to determine
- определи́ть (opredelítʹ)to determine
- опи́сывать (opísyvatʹ)state meaning of
- описа́ть (opisátʹ)state meaning of
- опи́сывать (opísyvatʹ)describe, explain, make definite and clear
- описа́ть (opisátʹ)describe, explain, make definite and clear
- обознача́ть (oboznačátʹ)demark the limits of
- обозна́чить (oboznáčitʹ)demark the limits of
Spanish determinar, definir
- determinarto determine
- definirto determine
- definirseto determine
- aclararexpress the essential nature of
- definirexpress the essential nature of
- definirstate meaning of
- describirdescribe, explain, make definite and clear
- definirdescribe, explain, make definite and clear
- delimitardemark the limits of
- demarcardemark the limits of
- definirdemark the limits of
Swedish definiera
- definierastate meaning of
Turkish tanımlamak
- tanımlamakdescribe, explain, make definite and clear
Ukrainian визнача́ти, ви́значити
- визнача́ти (vyznačáty)to determine
- ви́значити (význačyty)to determine
- визнача́ти (vyznačáty)state meaning of
- ви́значити (význačyty)state meaning of
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with define
Anagrams
Cite this entry
define. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/define
“define.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/define. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “define,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/define.
Source: define on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.