determinate
having defined limits; definite.
settled; positive.
conclusive; final.
Botany. (of an inflorescence) having the primary and each secondary axis ending in a flower or bud, thus preventing further elongation.
Engineering.
(of a structure) able to be analyzed completely by means of the principles of statics.
(of a member of a structure) subject only to definite, known stresses.
(of a stress) able to be determined through the principles of statics.
to make certain of.
to identify.
Origin of determinate
1Other words from determinate
- de·ter·mi·nate·ly, adverb
- de·ter·mi·nate·ness, noun
Words Nearby determinate
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use determinate in a sentence
These are serious crimes that require the most serious of consequences, which is why a judge or jury sentences the individual to a lengthy determinate sentence, life imprisonment, or life imprisonment without parole.
Hogan vetoes bill that would abolish life sentences without parole for juveniles | Ovetta Wiggins | April 9, 2021 | Washington PostTheir error didn’t have to do with determinate attributes or some other fine philosophical point understood only by a few logicians.
What Is Life? Its Vast Diversity Defies Easy Definition. | Carl Zimmer | March 9, 2021 | Quanta MagazineWe do not suffer affliction by chance, but by the determinate counsel and permission of God.
Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. I | Francis Augustus CoxHe must rather seek the absolute being by means of a determinate being, and the determinate being by means of an infinite being.
The Aesthetical Essays | Friedrich SchillerIt is the recognition of the import within the practical judgment, of the given, of fact, in its determinate character.
Essays in Experimental Logic | John Dewey
For they imply the seeming paradox of a judgment whose proper subject-matter is its own determinate formation.
Essays in Experimental Logic | John DeweyTo judge value is to engage in instituting a determinate value where none is given.
Essays in Experimental Logic | John Dewey
British Dictionary definitions for determinate
/ (dɪˈtɜːmɪnɪt) /
definitely limited, defined, or fixed; distinct
a less common word for determined
able to be predicted or deduced
(of an effect) obeying the law of causality
botany (of an inflorescence) having the main and branch stems ending in flowers and unable to grow further; cymose
(of a structure, stress, etc) able to be fully analysed or determined
Derived forms of determinate
- determinately, adverb
- determinateness, noun
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
Scientific definitions for determinate
[ dĭ-tûr′mə-nĭt ]
Precisely determined, limited, or defined.
Not continuing to grow at an apical meristem. In the cyme, a determinate inflorescence, for example, the first floret develops at the end of the meristem, and no further elongation of the inflorescence can occur.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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