What does course mean?

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

What does course mean? - The Free Dictionary

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[n] education imparted in a series of lessons or meetings(he took a course in basket weaving flirting is not unknown in college classes)[v] move swiftly through or over(ships coursing the Atlantic)[r] as might be expected(naturally, the lawyer sent us a huge bill)[n] a connected series of

course

course - The Free Dictionary

[n] education imparted in a series of lessons or meetings
(he took a course in basket weaving flirting is not unknown in college classes)

[v] move swiftly through or over
(ships coursing the Atlantic)

[r] as might be expected
(naturally, the lawyer sent us a huge bill)

[n] a connected series of events or actions or developments
(the government took a firm course historians can only point out those lines for which evidence is available)

[v] move along, of liquids
(Water flowed into the cave the Missouri feeds into the Mississippi)

[n] general line of orientation
(the river takes a southern course the northeastern trend of the coast)

[v] hunt with hounds
(He often courses hares)

[n] a mode of action
(if you persist in that course you will surely fail once a nation is embarked on a course of action it becomes extremely difficult for any retraction to take place)

[n] a line or route along which something travels or moves
(the hurricane demolished houses in its path the track of an animal the course of the river)

[n] a body of students who are taught together
(early morning classes are always sleepy)

[n] part of a meal served at one time
(she prepared a three course meal)

[n] (construction) a layer of masonry
(a course of bricks)

[n] facility consisting of a circumscribed area of land or water laid out for a sport
(the course had only nine holes the course was less than a mile)

Other vocabulary

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., o, o level, o ring, o'brien, o'casey, o'clock, o'connor, o'er, o'flaherty, o'hara, o'keeffe, o'neill, o'toole, o. henry, o.d., o.e.d., o.k., oaf, oafish, oahu, oahu island, oak, oak apple, oak blight, oak chestnut, oak fern, oak leaf cluster, oak tree, oak-leaved goosefoot, oaken

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.