online

comparative more online · superlative most online · alternative dated on-line

1. Of a system: connected (generally electrically) to a larger network.
   1. Of a generator or power plant: connected to the grid.
   2. Of a computer: actively connected to the Internet or to some other communications service.

      Is this modem online?

2. Available over, or delivered from, the Internet.

   I prefer to read online newspapers.

   2 more examples

   In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.

   2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74

   The online world was meant to be an open system but has become dominated by huge corporations.

   2024 May 4, John Naughton, “The internet is in decline – it needs rewilding”, in The Guardian

3. Connected to the Internet.

   I'll be online tonight, so I'll be able to reply to your email.

4. Available on a computer system, even if not networked.

   Press the F1 key to access the online help.

   1 more example

   The program comes with an online manual, supplied on compact disc.

5. Of a system: active, particularly building facilities (such as power) or a factory or power plant.

   The power is online.

   1 more example

   Once this factory comes online, it will double car production in our country!

6. slangImmersed in Internet culture. (Usually modified by an intensifier such as extremely or terminally)

   terminally online

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   To borrow an idiom from the extremely online, late Godard is a mood.

   2019, A.O. Scott, “'The Image Book' Review: Godard Looks at Violence, and Movies”, in The New York Times

   “If we were doing a family vlog inside the house, I would not want my feet in the video. At all.” He would wear socks. He is very online. He sees the conversations.

   2025 April 27, Lisa Miller, Maggie Shannon, “When a Child’s Life Becomes the Family Business”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

7. computingAble to process an input piece-by-piece without needing to have the entire input available to it from the start.

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   An on–line algorithm is presented for constructing the suffix tree for a given string in time linear in the length of the string. The new algorithm has the desirable property of processing the string symbol by symbol from left to right. It has always the suffix tree for the scanned part of the string ready. The method is developed as a linear–time version of a very simple algorithm for (quadratic size) suffix tries. Regardless of its quadratic worst-case this latter algorithm can be a good practical method when the string is not too long. Another variation of this method is shown to give in a natural way the well–known algorithms for constructing suffix automata (DAWGs).

   1995 September, Esko Ukkonen, “On-line construction of suffix trees”, in Algorithmica, volume 14, number 3 (PDF), →DOI, archived from the original on 16 Aug 2026, pages 249–260

   Antonyms: offline

alternative dated on-line

1. not comparableWhile online; while in a running or active state, or connected to the Internet.

   He works online.

   1 more example

   Well, things are getting pretty serious right now. I mean, we chat online for, like, two hours every day so I guess you could say things are gettin' pretty serious.

   2004, Jared Hess, Jerusha Hess, Napoleon Dynamite (motion picture), spoken by Kip (Aaron Ruell)

present singular third person onlines · participle present onlining · participle past onlined · past onlined · alternative dated on-line

1. transitivecomputingTo bring (a system, etc.) online; to promote to an active or running state.

   The output in Listing 8-2 shows your disk group status prior to onlining the disks, the commands to online your disks, and the status after onlining.

   2013, John Clarke, Oracle Exadata Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach, page 219