Noun

(en noun)

Limitation, restriction or regulation. (rfex)

Any of the binding conditions or promises in a legal contract.

That which limits the extent of anything; limit; extremity; bound; boundary.

* Francis Bacon

Corruption is a reciprocal to generation, and they two are as nature's two terms , or boundaries.

(geometry) A point, line, or superficies that limits.

A line is the term''' of a superficies, and a superficies is the '''term of a solid.

A word or phrase, especially one from a specialised area of knowledge.

"Algorithm" is a term used in computer science.

Relations among people.

* , chapter=22

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part.

Part of a year, especially one of the three parts of an academic year.

(mathematics) Any value (variable or constant) or expression separated from another term by a space or an appropriate character, in an overall expression or table.

(logic) The subject or the predicate of a proposition; one of the three component parts of a syllogism, each one of which is used twice.

* Sir W. Hamilton

The subject and predicate of a proposition are, after Aristotle, together called its terms or extremes.

(architecture) A quadrangular pillar, adorned on top with the figure of a head, as of a man, woman, or satyr.

Duration of a set length; period in office of fixed length.

(computing) A terminal emulator, a program that emulates a video terminal.

(of a patent) The maximum period during which the patent can be maintained into force.

(astrology) 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.

(archaic) A menstrual period.

* 1660 , (Samuel Pepys), Diary

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.

(nautical) A piece of carved work placed under each end of the taffrail.

Noun

(uncountable, archaic) Verbal exchange, conversation.

* 1847 , , (Jane Eyre), Chapter XVIII

Two or three of the gentlemen sat near him, and I caught at times scraps of their conversation across the room. At first I could not make much sense of what I heard; for the discourse of Louisa Eshton and Mary Ingram, who sat nearer to me, confused the fragmentary sentences that reached me at intervals.

(uncountable) Expression in words, either speech or writing.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03

, author= , title=Pixels or Perish , volume=100, issue=2, page=106 , magazine= citation , passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse . Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}

(countable) A formal lengthy exposition of some subject, either spoken or written.

The preacher gave us a long discourse on duty.

(countable) Any rational expression, reason.

* South

difficult, strange, and harsh to the discourses of natural reason

* Shakespeare

Sure he that made us with such large discourse , / Looking before and after, gave us not / That capability and godlike reason / To rust in us unused.

(social sciences, countable) An institutionalized way of thinking, a social boundary defining what can be said about a specific topic (after ).

* 2007 , Christine L. Marran, Poison Woman: Figuring Female Transgression in Modern Japanese Culture (page 137)

Furthermore, it should be recalled from the previous chapter that criminological discourse of the 1930s deemed every woman a potential criminal, implicitly including the domestic woman.

* 2008 , Jane Anna Gordon, Lewis Gordon, A Companion to African-American Studies (page 308)

But equally important to the emergence of uniquely African-American queer discourses is the refusal of African-American movements for liberation to address adequately issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.

(obsolete) Dealing; transaction.

* Beaumont and Fletcher

Good Captain Bessus, tell us the discourse / Betwixt Tigranes and our king, and how / We got the victory.