What does active mean?

What does active mean?. The world's largest and most trusted free online dictionary: definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more.

What does active mean? - The Free Dictionary

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[n] chemical agent capable of activity[a] tending to become more severe or wider in scope(active tuberculosis)[n] the voice used to indicate that the grammatical subject of the verb is performing the action or causing the happening denoted by the verb(`The boy threw the ball' uses the acti

active

active - The Free Dictionary

[n] chemical agent capable of activity

[a] tending to become more severe or wider in scope
(active tuberculosis)

[n] the voice used to indicate that the grammatical subject of the verb is performing the action or causing the happening denoted by the verb
(`The boy threw the ball' uses the active voice)

[a] engaged in or ready for military or naval operations
(on active duty the platoon is combat-ready review the fighting forces)

[n] a person who is a participating member of an organization
(the club issues a list of members, both the actives and the retirees)

[a] disposed to take action or effectuate change
(a director who takes an active interest in corporate operations an active antagonism he was active in drawing attention to their grievances)

[a] taking part in an activity
(an active member of the club he was politically active the participating organizations)

[a] characterized by energetic activity
(an active toddler active as a gazelle an active man is a man of action)

[a] exerting influence or producing a change or effect
(an active ingredient)

[a] full of activity or engaged in continuous activity
(an active seaport an active bond market an active account)

[a] in operation
(keep hope alive the tradition was still alive an active tradition)

[a] (of the sun) characterized by an increased occurrence of sunspots and flares and radio emissions

[a] expressing that the subject of the sentence has the semantic function of actor:
(Hemingway favors active constructions)

[a] (used of verbs (e.g. `to run') and participial adjectives (e.g. `running' in `running water')) expressing action rather than a state of being

[a] (of e.g. volcanos) capable of erupting

[a] (of e.g. volcanos) erupting or liable to erupt
(active volcanos)

[a] engaged in full-time work
(active duty though past retirement age he is still active in his profession)

Other vocabulary

a, a battery, a bit, a capella singing, a cappella, a cappella singing, a couple of, a few, a fortiori, a good deal, a great deal, a horizon, a hundred times, a kempis, a la carte, a la mode, a level, a little, a lot, a million times, a posteriori, a priori, a trifle, a'man, a-bomb, a-horizon, a-line, a-list, a-ok, a-okay, c, c and w, c battery, c clef, c compiler, c horizon, c major, c major scale, c program, c-clamp, c-horizon, c-note, c-ration, c-reactive protein, c-section, c. d. gibson, c. diphtheriae, c. h. best, c. k. ogden, c. northcote parkinson, c. p. snow, c. psittaci, c. s. forester, c. s. lewis, c. trachomatis, c. vann woodward, c. w. post, c.e., c.o.d., c.p.u.

Dictionary

A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.

A broad distinction is made between general and specialized dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include words in specialist fields, rather than a complete range of words in the language. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether lexicology and terminology are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed[citation needed] to be semasiological, mapping word to definition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be onomasiological, first identifying concepts and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types. There are other types of dictionaries that do not fit neatly into the above distinction, for instance bilingual (translation) dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms (thesauri), and rhyming dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a general purpose monolingual dictionary.

There is also a contrast between prescriptive or descriptive dictionaries; the former reflect what is seen as correct use of the language while the latter reflect recorded actual use. Stylistic indications (e.g. "informal" or "vulgar") in many modern dictionaries are also considered by some to be less than objectively descriptive.

The first recorded dictionaries date back to Sumerian times around 2300 BCE, in the form of bilingual dictionaries, and the oldest surviving monolingual dictionaries are Chinese dictionaries c. 3rd century BCE. The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written in 1604, and monolingual dictionaries in other languages also began appearing in Europe at around this time. The systematic study of dictionaries as objects of scientific interest arose as a 20th-century enterprise, called lexicography, and largely initiated by Ladislav Zgusta. The birth of the new discipline was not without controversy, with the practical dictionary-makers being sometimes accused by others of having an "astonishing" lack of method and critical-self reflection.