por⋅tal
1 [pawr-tl, pohr-]
| 1. | a door, gate, or entrance, esp. one of imposing appearance, as to a palace. |
| 2. | an iron or steel bent for bracing a framed structure, having curved braces between the vertical members and a horizontal member at the top. |
| 3. | an entrance to a tunnel or mine. |
| 4. | Computers. a Web site that functions as an entry point to the Internet, as by providing useful content and linking to various sites and features on the World Wide Web. |
Related forms:
1. entranceway, doorway, entry, threshold.
por⋅tal
2 [pawr-tl, pohr-]
Anatomy| 1. | noting or pertaining to the transverse fissure of the liver. |
| 2. | portal vein. |
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Portal
Por"tal\, n. [OF. portal, F. portail, LL. portale, fr. L. porta a gate. See Port a gate.]1. A door or gate; hence, a way of entrance or exit, especially one that is grand and imposing. Thick with sparkling orient gems The portal shone. --Milton. From out the fiery portal of the east. --Shak. 2. (Arch.) (a) The lesser gate, where there are two of different dimensions. (b) Formerly, a small square corner in a room separated from the rest of the apartment by wainscoting, forming a short passage to another apartment. (c) By analogy with the French portail, used by recent writers for the whole architectural composition which surrounds and includes the doorways and porches of a church. 3. (Bridge Building) The space, at one end, between opposite trusses when these are terminated by inclined braces. 4. A prayer book or breviary; a portass. [Obs.] Portal bracing (Bridge Building), a combination of struts and ties which lie in the plane of the inclined braces at a portal, serving to transfer wind pressure from the upper parts of the trusses to an abutment or pier of the bridge.Portal
Por"tal\, a. (Anat.) Of or pertaining to a porta, especially the porta of the liver; as, the portal vein, which enters the liver at the porta, and divides into capillaries after the manner of an artery. Note: Portal is applied to other veins which break up into capillaries; as, the renal portal veins in the frog.Cite This Source
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portal
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PORTAL
- A NASD trading system for unregistered foreign and domestic securities.
Copyright © 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Main Entry: 1por·tal
Pronunciation: 'port-&l
Function: noun
: a communicating part or area of an organism: as a : PORTAL VEIN b : the point at which something enters the body <portals ofinfection>
Main Entry: 2portal
Function: adjective
1 : of or relating to the porta hepatis
2 : of, relating to, or being a portal vein or aportal system <portal blood> <portal circulation>
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portal por·tal (pôr'tl)
adj.
- Of or relating to a porta or hilum.
- Of or relating to the portal vein or the portal system.
- Of or relating to a point of entrance to an organ, especially the transverse fissure of the liver, through which the blood vessels enter.
- The portal vein.
- The point of entry into the body of a pathogenic microorganism.
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PORTAL
Process-Oriented Real-Time Algorithmic Language.
["PORTAL - A Pascal-based Real-Time Programming Language", R. Schild in Algorithmic Languages, J.W. deBakker et al eds, N-H 1981].
portal World-Wide Web
A website that aims to be an entry point to the World-Wide Web, typically offering a search engine and/or links to useful pages, and possibly news or other services. These services are usually provided for free in the hope that users will make the site their default home page or at least visit it often. Popular examples are Yahoo and MSN. Most portals on the Internet exist to generate advertising income for their owners, others may be focused on a specific group of users and may be part of an intranet or extranet. Some may just concentrate on one particular subject, say technology or medicine, and are known as a vertical portals.
(2001-07-07)
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