Define Meaning
/dɪˈfaɪn/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly.
verbTo settle, decide (an argument etc.)
Sentence Examples
If I had to define life in a word, it would be: Life is creation.
Can you clearly define this word?
The term ‘normal’ is difficult to define.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Scientists need to ____ the parameters of the experiment clearly.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
If I had to ____ life in a word, it would be: Life is creation.
Word Origin & History
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”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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, […], →OCLC:
"Turbines 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):
"These warlike Champions, all in armour shine, / Assembled were in field the chalenge to define."
— 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
"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:
"Few 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:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Scientists need to ____ the parameters of the experiment clearly.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
If I had to ____ life in a word, it would be: Life is creation.