external
of or relating to the outside or outer part; outer: an external surface.
Medicine/Medical. to be applied to the outside of a body, as a remedy: for external use only.
situated or being outside something; acting or coming from without: external influences.
pertaining to the outward or visible appearance or show: external acts of worship.
pertaining to or concerned with foreign countries: external affairs;external commerce.
Zoology, Anatomy. on the side farthest from the body, the median line, or the center of a radially symmetrical form.
Metaphysics. of or relating to the world of things, considered as independent of the perceiving mind: external world.
the outside; outer surface; exterior.
something that is external.
externals, external features, circumstances, etc.; outward appearance; superficialities.
Origin of external
1Other words for external
Opposites for external
Other words from external
- ex·ter·nal·ly, adverb
- non·ex·ter·nal, adjective, noun
- non·ex·ter·nal·ly, adverb
- qua·si-ex·ter·nal, adjective
- qua·si-ex·ter·nal·ly, adverb
- sem·i·ex·ter·nal, adjective
- sem·i·ex·ter·nal·ly, adverb
- sub·ex·ter·nal, adjective
- sub·ex·ter·nal·ly, adverb
Words that may be confused with external
- extraneous, external , extrinsic
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use external in a sentence
Sometimes those externals really help you because they make you feel different and they help you with the pretending.
Yet, through a life devoted to the externals of it, Mata had been tolerant of beauty, rather than at one with it.
The Dragon Painter | Mary McNeil FenollosaWith all her disadvantages in externals, I know she was really beloved.
'Three Score Years and Ten' | Charlotte Ouisconsin Van CleveEven the externals of his youth had differed from the common run.
Tristram of Blent | Anthony HopeWe should speak gratefully of the externals of books, because for two long years our oculist did not allow us to open them.
These tree forms, bold and delicate, with such wonderful subtleties of drawing in them, give more than externals.
Corot | Sidney Allnutt
British Dictionary definitions for external
/ (ɪkˈstɜːnəl) /
of, situated on, or suitable for the outside; outer
coming or acting from without: external evidence from an independent source
of or involving foreign nations; foreign
of, relating to, or designating a medicine that is applied to the outside of the body
anatomy situated on or near the outside of the body: the external ear
education denoting assessment by examiners who are not employed at the candidate's place of study
Australian and NZ (of a student) studying a university subject extramurally
philosophy (of objects, etc) taken to exist independently of a perceiving mind
(often plural) an external circumstance or aspect, esp one that is superficial or inessential
Australian and NZ a student taking an extramural subject
Origin of external
1Derived forms of external
- externally, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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