What does range mean?

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

What does range mean? - The Free Dictionary

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[n] an area in which something acts or operates or has power or control:(the range of a supersonic jet a piano has a greater range than the human voice the ambit of municipal legislation within the compass of this article within the scope of an investigation outside the reach of the law in

range

range - The Free Dictionary

[n] an area in which something acts or operates or has power or control:
(the range of a supersonic jet a piano has a greater range than the human voice the ambit of municipal legislation within the compass of this article within the scope of an investigation outside the reach of the law in the political orbit of a world power)

[v] change or be different within limits
(Estimates for the losses in the earthquake range as high as $2 billion Interest rates run from 5 to 10 percent The instruments ranged from tuba to cymbals My students range from very bright to dull)

[n] the limits within which something can be effective
(range of motion he was beyond the reach of their fire)

[v] move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment
(The gypsies roamed the woods roving vagabonds the wandering Jew The cattle roam across the prairie the laborers drift from one town to the next They rolled from town to town)

[n] a large tract of grassy open land on which livestock can graze
(they used to drive the cattle across the open range every spring he dreamed of a home on the range)

[v] have a range; be capable of projecting over a certain distance, as of a gun
(This gun ranges over two miles)

[n] a series of hills or mountains
(the valley was between two ranges of hills the plains lay just beyond the mountain range)

[v] range or extend over; occupy a certain area
(The plants straddle the entire state)

[n] a place for shooting (firing or driving) projectiles of various kinds
(the army maintains a missile range in the desert any good golf club will have a range where you can practice)

[v] lay out orderly or logically in a line or as if in a line
(lay out the clothes lay out the arguments)

[n] a variety of different things or activities
(he answered a range of questions he was impressed by the range and diversity of the collection)

[v] feed as in a meadow or pasture
(the herd was grazing)

[n] (mathematics) the set of values of the dependent variable for which a function is defined
(the image of f(x) = x^2 is the set of all non-negative real numbers if the domain of the function is the set of all real numbers)

[v] let eat
(range the animals in the prairie)

[n] the limit of capability
(within the compass of education)

[v] assign a rank or rating to
(how would you rank these students? The restaurant is rated highly in the food guide)

[n] a kitchen appliance used for cooking food
(dinner was already on the stove)

Other vocabulary

r, r and b, r-2, r. b. cattell, r. buckminster fuller, r. j. mitchell, r.c., r.v., ra, rabat, rabato, rabbet, rabbet joint, rabbet plane, rabbi, rabbi moses ben maimon, rabbinate, rabbinic, rabbinical, rabbit, rabbit bandicoot, rabbit brush, rabbit burrow, rabbit bush, rabbit ears, rabbit fever, rabbit food, rabbit hole, rabbit hutch, rabbit on, 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

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.