external
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle French externe + -al, from Latin externus, from exter, exterus (“on the outside, outward”).
PronunciationEdit
- (General American) IPA(key): /ɛksˈtɝnəl/, /ɪksˈtɝnəl/, /əksˈtɝnəl/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɪksˈtɜːnəl/, /əksˈtɜːnəl/, /ɛksˈtɜːnəl/
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)nəl
Audio (US) (file) - Hyphenation: ex‧ter‧nal
AdjectiveEdit
external (comparative more external, superlative most external)
- Outside of something; on the exterior.
- This building has some external pipework.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book 5”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
- Of all external things, […] / She [Fancy] forms imaginations, aery shapes.
- 1591, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene v]:
- Her virtues graced with external gifts.
- Not intrinsic nor essential; accidental; accompanying; superficial.
- 1850, Richard Chenevix Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord
- The external circumstances are greatly different.
- 1850, Richard Chenevix Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord
- Foreign; relating to or connected with foreign nations.
- external trade or commerce; the external relations of a state or kingdom
- (anatomy) Away from the mesial plane of the body; lateral.
- Provided by something or someone outside of the entity (object, group, company etc.) considered.
SynonymsEdit
- (not intrinsic nor essential): See also Thesaurus:extrinsic
AntonymsEdit
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
outside of something
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NounEdit
external (plural externals)
- (chiefly in the plural) The exterior; outward features or appearances.
- (programming) In the C programming language, a variable that is defined in the source code but whose value comes from some external source.
Further readingEdit
- external in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- external in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- external at OneLook Dictionary Search