Word.ws English Dictionary

external

UK/ɪkˈstɜː.nəl//ɛkˈstɜɹ.nəl/

external adjective: outside of something; on the exterior.

Adjective

external (comparative more external, superlative most external)

  1. Outside of something; on the exterior.
    • This building has some external pipework.
    • Her virtues graced with external gifts.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    1. Situated near or toward the surface of the body.
    2. (relational) Relating to or denoting a medicine or similar substance for use on the outside of the body.
  2. Having merely the outward appearance of something.
    Synonyms:
    superficial
  3. Not intrinsic or essential.
    • The external circumstances are greatly different.1850, Richard Chenevix Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord
  4. Provided by something or someone outside of the entity (object, group, company etc.) considered.
    • external authority, external force
  5. Relating to or connected with foreign nations or institutions.
    • external trade or commerce; the external relations of a state or kingdom
    Synonyms:
    foreign
  6. Having existence independent of the mind.
    • external reality
  7. For or concerning students registered with and taking the examinations of a university but not resident there.
    • external degrees
  8. Not contained in the main computer.
    Synonyms:
    peripheral
  9. Using a disk or tape drive rather than the main memory.

Noun

external (plural externals)

  1. (plural-normally) Inessential or superficial features.
    • To a non-Christian who has never experienced but only observed the externals of Christianity, it appears to be merely another spiritual system, but to a person who has left one of the other religions and embraced the Christian faith, it is most definitely The Way, and all else pales to...1979 December 22, S. J. Harris, “Life And Spirit”, in Gay Community News, volume 2, number 22, page 5
  2. (plural-normally) Outward appearance.
    • They had been such declared, such personal enemies, that, even in a court, it seemed wonderful how a decent external could be given to their reconciliation.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 298
    • He was indeed a creature who by externals at all events had more in common with another genus than with that humanity among which fate had cast him, and his familiar nickname of "The Toad" crudely indicated what that species might be.1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London
  3. A variable that is defined in the source code but whose value comes from some external source.

external meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

external in Hindi

external; on the surface
सतही sathī

external in Tamil

புற, புறத்தேயான, வெளி, வெளிப்புறமான, வெளியான, வெளியேயுள்ள

external in Urdu

outside of something
بیرونی bairūnī

external in Bengali

বহি, বহিরাবরণ, বাহির, বাহিরের তল, বহিরংশ, বহিরাগত
More languagesFewer languages
external in Telugu
బహిర్గత bahirgata
external in Malayalam
പുറമേയുള്ള, ബാഹ്യമായ, തൊലിപ്പുറത്തുള്ള
external in Kannada
ಹೊರನೋಟದ, ಹೊರಭಾಗದ, ಬಾಹ್ಯ, ಹೊರಗಿನ
external in Punjabi
ਬਾਹਰਲਾ bāhralā
external in Nepali
बाह्य
external in Arabic
خَارِجِيّ ḵārijiyy
external in Persian
بیرونی birôni, بیگانه bigâne

Examples of external in a sentence

  • The external web servers hit DBSRV7, but the internal web server hits DBSRV3.
  • The protected modifier makes a class member visible to subclasses, but not to external code.
  • Distance-vector protocols are more suited to external routing as they don't require a consistent world-view.

All 40 example sentences with external

Synonyms of external

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of external

Forms of external

Adjective
comparativemore external
superlativemost external
alternative form (obsolete)externall
Noun
pluralexternals

Origin of external

From Late Middle English, from Medieval Latin externus (“outward, external”), from exter/exterus (“on the outside, outward”).

Words formed from external

Phrases with external

7 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with external

40 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about external

What does external mean?
External means outside of something; on the exterior.
What is external in Hindi?
External in Hindi is सतही (sathī). See External meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is external?
External can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce external?
External is pronounced /ɪkˈstɜː.nəl/ (UK).

Words near external in the dictionary

  1. extermining
  2. exterminism
  3. exterminist
  4. exterminists
  5. extern
  6. external
  7. external acoustic meatus
  8. external acoustic meatuses
  9. external auditory canal
  10. external auditory canals
  11. external auditory meatus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: external (page history and authors); सतही (Hindi) (page history and authors); external (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); external (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); external (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); external (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਬਾਹਰਲਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); external (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-external.ogg.

Cite this entry: “external.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/external. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.