Noun

(en noun)

(botany, anatomy) A branching-out, the act or result of developing branches; specifically the divergence of the stem and limbs of a plant into smaller ones, or of similar developments in blood vessels, anatomical structures etc.

* 1829 , Lincoln Phelps, Familiar Lectures on Botany , p. 179:

The character of trees may be studied to advantage [...] in winter, when the forms of the ramification can be seen in the naked boughs [...].

* 1856 , Neil Arnott & Isaac Hayes, Elements of Physics , pp. 414-5:

From the left chamber or ventricle'' of the strong muscular mass, the ''heart'', a large tube arises, called the ''aorta ; and by a continued division or ramification , opens a way for the bright scarlet blood to the very minutest part of the living frame [...].

An offshoot of a decision, fact etc.; a consequence or implication, especially one which complicates a situation.

* 1834 , Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy :

The treachery of some of the Jacobite agents (Rashleigh among the rest), and the arrest of others, had made George the First's Government acquainted with the extensive ramifications of a conspiracy long prepared, and which at last exploded prematurely [...].

* 2009 , The Guardian , Chris Power, Booksblog, 14 Jul 09:

But most often and memorably his work falls into that territory best summed up as speculative fiction, with a particular emphasis on dystopian futures and the existential ramifications of space exploration.

(mathematics) An arrangement of branches.

Noun

(es) (wikipedia branch)

The woody part of a tree arising from the trunk and usually dividing.

Any of the parts of something that divides like the branch of a tree.

the branch of an antler, a chandelier, a river, or a railway

(geometry) One of the portions of a curve that extends outwards to an indefinitely great distance.

the branches of a hyperbola

A location of an organization with several locations.

Our main branch is downtown, and we have branches in all major suburbs.

A line of family descent, in distinction from some other line or lines from the same stock; any descendant in such a line.

the English branch of a family

* Carew

his father, a younger branch of the ancient stock

(Mormonism) A local congregation of the LDS Church that is not large enough to form a ward; see .

An area in business or of knowledge, research.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01

, author=Robert L. Dorit , title=Rereading Darwin , volume=100, issue=1, page=23 , magazine= citation , passage=We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.}}

(nautical) A certificate given by (Trinity House) to a pilot qualified to take navigational control of a ship in British waters.

(computer architecture) A sequence of .