Word.ws English Dictionary

term

/tɜːm//tɜɹm/

term noun: that which limits the extent of anything; limit, extremity, bound, boundary, terminus.

Noun (1)

term (plural terms)

  1. (original meaning, by derivation) That which limits the extent of anything; limit, extremity, bound, boundary, terminus.
    • Corruption is a reciprocal to generation, and they two are as nature's two terms, or boundaries.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted...
    • At the decline of day,
      Winding above the mountain’s snowy term,
      New banners shone: […]1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC...
  2. (often, plural) Any of the binding conditions or promises in a contract or agreement.
    • Be sure to read the terms and conditions before signing.
    • Alright, look...we can spend the holidays with your parents, but this time it will be on my terms.
  3. (in plural) Specifically, the conditions in a legal contract that specify the price and also how and when payment must be made.
    • Q: What are your company's terms? A: Net thirty, cash or check. [This answer means that the net total must be paid within 30 days; see Net D.]
    • The latest models are available now, on the lowest terms you'll find anywhere, guaranteed.
  4. A limited or defined timespan.
    • The term of a lease agreement is the period of time during which the lease is effective, and may be fixed, periodic, or of indefinite duration.
    • He was sentenced to a term of six years in prison.
  5. Duration of officeholding, or its limit; period in office of fixed length.
    • The president is almost half way through his term.
    • “I don’t believe that the people trust Netanyahu to lead when he is under the burden of such a devastating event that just happened under his term,” he told the Observer.2023 October 22, Ruth Michaelson, quoting Ehud Barak, “Netanyahu told to ‘quit now’ as ex-leaders pin blame on dysfunctional government”, in The Observer, →ISSN
  6. The time during which legal courts are open.
  7. Certain days on which rent is paid.
  8. Part of a year, especially one of the divisions of an academic year.
    • At our school, sports day was always held at the end of the summer term.
    • From 1960 to 1963 I spent my terms at Cambridge University but was back home for the vacs[.]1983, Bill Oddie, Gone Birding, London: Methuen, page 45
  9. With respect to a pregnancy, the usual duration of gestation for the given species (for example, nine months in humans); (metonymic) the end of this duration: the timepoint at which birth usually happens (for example, in humans, approximately 40 weeks from conception), defining the due date.
    • A pregnancy didn't come to term.
    • at term
  10. (archaic) A menstrual period.
    • My wife, after the absence of her terms for seven weeks, gave me hopes of her being with child, but on the last day of the year she hath them again.1660, Samuel Pepys, Diary
  11. The maximum period during which the patent can be maintained into force.
  12. (in plural, usually in phrases such as on good terms and similar) Relations among people.
    • We are on friendly terms with each other.
    • Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part.[…]Next day she[…]tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head. Then, thwarted, the wretched creature went to the police for help; she was versed in the law, and perhaps had spared no pains to keep on good terms with the local...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 361
Show 8 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. A word or phrase (e.g., noun phrase, verb phrase, open compound), especially one from a specialised area of knowledge; a name for a concept.
    • "Algorithm" is a term used in computer science.
    • The noun phrase "red blood cell", the acronym "RBC", and the word "erythrocyte" are synonymous terms.
  2. (in plural) A stated kind of language or terminology.
    • Could you explain that in layman's terms?
    • I told her in no uncertain terms that it was none of her business.
  3. Any value (variable or constant) or expression separated from another term by a space or an appropriate character, in an overall expression or table.
    • All the terms of this sum cancel out.
    • One only term is odd in ( 12; 3; 4 ).
  4. The subject or the predicate of a proposition; one of the three component parts of a syllogism, each one of which is used twice.
    • The subject and predicate of a proposition are, after Aristotle, together called its terms or extremes.a. 1857, William Hamilton, edited by H[enry] L[ongueville] Mansel and John Veitch, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood...
  5. An essential dignity in which unequal segments of every astrological sign have internal rulerships which affect the power and integrity of each planet in a natal chart.
  6. (archaic) A point, line, or superficies that limits.
    • A line is the term of a superficies, and a superficies is the term of a solid.
  7. A statue of the upper body, sometimes without the arms, ending in a pillar or pedestal.
    • The pillers that haue bolſtered vp thoſe tearmes,
      Are falne in cluſters at my conquering feet.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
    • You have been already informed, I have no doubt, of the subject which we have chosen: the adorning a Term of Hymen with festoons of flowers.1773, Joshua Reynolds, edited by John Ingamells and John Edgcumbe, The Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Yale, published 2000, page 42
  8. A piece of carved work placed under each end of the taffrail.

Verb (1)

term (third-person singular simple present terms, present participle terming, simple past and past participle termed)

  1. (transitive) To phrase a certain way; to name or call.
    • Abstraction or prescision ought to be carefully distinguished from two other modes of mental separation, which may be termed discrimination and dissociation.1867, Charles Sanders Peirce, On a New List of Categories
    • The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist
    Synonyms:
    describe as, designate, dub, name, refer to

Adjective

term (not comparable)

  1. (colloquial) Born or delivered at term.
    • term neonate

Noun (2)

term (plural terms)

  1. (informal) A computer program that emulates a physical terminal.

Verb (2)

term (third-person singular simple present terms, present participle terming, simple past and past participle termed)

  1. (ambitransitive, informal) To terminate someone's employment.
  2. (informal, transitive) To delete someone's account.

Noun (3)

term (plural terms)

  1. One whose employment has been terminated

term meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

term in Hindi

limitation, restriction or regulation
शर्त śart, निबंधन nibandhan
one of the addends in a sum or in another mathematical operation
जुमला jumlā
word or phrase, especially one from a specialised area of knowledge
इस्तिलाह istilāh

term in Tamil

அடுத்தடுத்து வரும் குறிப்பிட்ட காலம், பருவம், சொல், தவணை, உறுப்பு

term in Marathi

term
पद pad

term in Urdu

عرصہ, دوران, اصطلاح, لفظ, میعاد, مدت
More languagesFewer languages
term in Bengali
শব্দ, মেয়াদ, পরিভাষা, পদ
term in Telugu
షరతు ṣaratu, నిబంధన nibandhana
term in Malayalam
നിബന്ധന nibandhana
term in Kannada
ಹೊತ್ತು, ಗಡುವು, ತಡವೆ, ಬೇಡಿಕೆ
term in Punjabi
ਸ਼ਰਤ śarat
term in Sanskrit
अन्तर ántara
term in Sinhala
පදය, වචනය, යෙදුම
term in Assamese
বোল bül
term in Nepali
पदावली
term in Tagalog
tadhana, taning, takay, tawag
term in Arabic
شَرْط šarṭ, اِصْطِلَاح iṣṭilāḥ, مُصْطَلَح muṣṭalaḥ
term in Malay
terma, istilah
term in Indonesian
syarat, istilah
term in Persian
جمله, اصطلاح estelâh, واژه vâže
term in Thai
คำ kam, ศัพท์ sàp
term in Vietnamese
điều kiện

Examples of term in a sentence

  • The term allowed to a debtor to discharge his debt.
  • near-term, mid-term and long-term goals
  • Merchandiſe, Produce, &c. carried on the loweſt Terms.1793 May 17, John Constable and James Piper, advertisement for a packet-boat between Chestertown and Baltimore, Chestertown, Maryland...
  • Then, thwarted, the wretched creature went to the police for help; she was versed in the law, and perhaps had spared no pains to keep on good terms with the local constabulary.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page...

All 40 example sentences with term

Synonyms of term

All synonyms of term

Forms of term

Noun
pluralterms
Verb
third-person singular presentterms
present participleterming
past participletermed
pasttermed

Plural of term: terms

Origin of term

From Middle English terme, borrowed from Old French terme, from Latin terminus (“a bound, boundary, limit, end; in Medieval Latin, also a time, period, word, covenant, etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *térmn̥ (“stump, end, boundary”). Doublet of terminus and termon. Old English had termen, from the same source.

Clipping of terminal.

Short for terminate, termination, terminated employee, etc.

Words formed from term

Phrases with term

40 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with term

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about term

What does term mean?
Term means that which limits the extent of anything; limit, extremity, bound, boundary, terminus.
What is term in Hindi?
Term in Hindi is शर्त (śart), निबंधन (nibandhan), जुमला (jumlā). See Term meaning in Hindi.
How do you use term in a sentence?
The term allowed to a debtor to discharge his debt.
What part of speech is term?
Term can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce term?
Term is pronounced /tɜːm/ (UK).
What is the plural of term?
The plural of term is terms.

Words near term in the dictionary

  1. terlinguaite
  2. terlipressin
  3. Terlizzi
  4. Terlizzis
  5. TERLS
  6. term
  7. term assurance
  8. term day
  9. term days
  10. term deposit
  11. term deposits

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: term (page history and authors); term (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); पद (Marathi) (page history and authors); term (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); term (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); term (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਸ਼ਰਤ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); अन्तर (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); term (Sinhala Wiktionary) (page history and authors); বোল (Assamese) (page history and authors); term (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.

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