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Virtual - 6 dictionary results
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vir⋅tu⋅al
[vur-choo-uh
l] 
–adjective
| 1. | being such in power, force, or effect, though not actually or expressly such: a virtual dependence on charity. |
| 2. | Optics.
|
| 3. | temporarily simulated or extended by computer software: a virtual disk in RAM; virtual memory on a hard disk. |
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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|
Link To Virtual
| vir·tu·al (vûr'chōō-əl) adj.
[Middle English virtuall, effective, from Medieval Latin virtuālis, from Latin virtūs, excellence; see virtue.] vir'tu·al'i·ty (-āl'ĭ-tē) n. Usage Note: When virtual was first introduced in the computational sense, it applied to things simulated by the computer, like virtual memory—that is, memory that is not actually built into the processor. Over time, though, the adjective has been applied to things that really exist and are created or carried on by means of computers. Virtual conversations are conversations that take place over computer networks, and virtual communities are genuine social groups that assemble around the use of e-mail, webpages, and other networked resources. · The adjectives virtual and digital and the prefixes e- and cyber- are all used in various ways to denote things, activities, and organizations that are realized or carried out chiefly in an electronic medium. There is considerable overlap in the use of these items: people may speak either of virtual communities or of cybercommunities and of e-cash or cybercash. To a certain extent the choice of one or another of these is a matter of use or convention (or in some cases, of finding an unregistered brand name). But there are certain tendencies. Digital is the most comprehensive of the words, and can be used for almost any device or activity that makes use of or is based on computer technology, such as a digital camera or a digital network. Virtual tends to be used in reference to things that mimic their "real" equivalents. Thus a digital library would be simply a library that involves information technology, whether a brick-and-mortar library equipped with networked computers or a library that exists exclusively in electronic form, whereas a virtual library could only be the latter of these. The prefix e- is generally preferred when speaking of the commercial applications of the Web, as in e-commerce, e-cash, and e-business, whereas cyber- tends to be used when speaking of the computer or of networks from a broader cultural point of view, as in cybersex, cyberchurch, and cyberspace. But like everything else in this field, such usages are evolving rapidly, and it would be rash to try to predict how these expressions will be used in the future. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Virtual
Vir"tu*al\ (?; 135), a. [Cf. F. virtuel. See Virtue.]1. Having the power of acting or of invisible efficacy without the agency of the material or sensible part; potential; energizing. Heat and cold have a virtual transition, without communication of substance. --Bacon. Every kind that lives, Fomented by his virtual power, and warmed. --Milton. 2. Being in essence or effect, not in fact; as, the virtual presence of a man in his agent or substitute. A thing has a virtual existence when it has all the conditions necessary to its actual existence. --Fleming. To mask by slight differences in the manners a virtual identity in the substance. --De Quincey. Principle of virtual velocities (Mech.), the law that when several forces are in equilibrium, the algebraic sum of their virtual moments is equal to zero. Virtual focus (Opt.), the point from which rays, having been rendered divergent by reflection of refraction, appear to issue; the point at which converging rays would meet if not reflected or refracted before they reach it. Virtual image. (Optics) See under Image. Virtual moment (of a force) (Mech.), the product of the intensity of the force multiplied by the virtual velocity of its point of application; -- sometimes called virtual work. Virtual velocity (Mech.), a minute hypothetical displacement, assumed in analysis to facilitate the investigation of statical problems. With respect to any given force of a number of forces holding a material system in equilibrium, it is the projection, upon the direction of the force, of a line joining its point of application with a new position of that point indefinitely near to the first, to which the point is conceived to have been moved, without disturbing the equilibrium of the system, or the connections of its parts with each other. Strictly speaking, it is not a velocity but a length. Virtual work. (Mech.) See Virtual moment, above.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : Virtual
Spanish:
virtual,
German:
virtuell,
Japanese:
事実上の
virtual
adj. [via the technical term `virtual memory', prob. from the term `virtual image' in optics]1. Common alternative to logical; often used to refer to the artificial objects (like addressable virtual memory larger than physical memory) simulated by a computer system as a convenient way to manage access to shared resources.
2. Simulated; performing the functions of something that isn't really there. An imaginative child's doll may be a virtual playmate. Oppose real.
Jargon File 4.2.0
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virtual
1398, "influencing by physical virtues or capabilities," from M.L. virtualis, from L. virtus "excellence, potency, efficacy," lit. "manliness, manhood" (see virtue). The meaning of "being something in essence or fact, though not in name" is first recorded 1654, probably via sense of "capable of producing a certain effect" (1432). Computer sense of "not physically existing but made to appear by software" is attested from 1959. Virtually (c.1430) originally meant "as far as essential qualities or facts are concerned;" sense of "in effect, as good as" is recorded from c.1600.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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virtual jargon, architecture
(Via the technical term virtual memory, probably from the term "virtual image" in optics) 1. Common alternative to logical; often used to refer to the artificial objects (like addressable virtual memory larger than physical memory) created by a computer system to help the system control access to shared resources.
2. Simulated; performing the functions of something that isn't really there. An imaginative child's doll may be a virtual playmate.
Opposite of real or physical.
[The Jargon File]
(1994-11-30)
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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