Meaning of term in English

term

noun

/tɜːm/ us

/tɝːm/

term noun (TIME)

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[ C ]

the fixed period of time that something lasts for:

serve a term for He served a short term for drunk driving.

be sentenced to a prison/jail term He was sentenced to a 150-year prison term for cheating thousands of ordinary people out of their savings.

term of office The government's term of office (= the period in which they have power) expires at the end of the year.

A2 [ C ]

one of the periods into which a year is divided at school, college, or university:

In Britain, the spring term starts in January and ends just before Easter.

US Our college has three terms that we call trimesters.

term-time UK We're very busy in term-time (= during the term).

Compare

quarter

semester

[ C ] formal

the period of time that a legal agreement lasts for:

The lease on our house is near the end of its term.

[ U ] biology specialized

the end of a pregnancy when a baby is expected to be born:

to term Her last pregnancy went to term (= the baby was born after the expected number of weeks).

a full-term pregnancy

in the long/medium/short term

for a long, medium, or short period of time in the future:

This decision will cost us more in the short term, but will be beneficial in the long term.

More examplesFewer examples

The government is elected for a five-year term of office.
The school term ends on the ninth of July.
Next term we shall study plants and how they grow.
At the beginning of term, students are supplied with a list of books that they are expected to read.
He served a 13-year jail term.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Periods of time - general words

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Schools in general

University & college education

Obstetrics: pregnancy

term noun (EXPRESSION)

B2 [ C ]

a word or expression used in relation to a particular subject, often to describe something official or technical:

"Without let or hindrance" is a legal term that means "freely".

[ C ] mathematics specialized

a number or symbol used in a mathematical series or calculation:

terms of We then use the same rule to compute the terms of the equation.

The terms of a geometric series form a geometric progression, meaning that the ratio of successive terms in the series is constant.

term of abuse

an unkind or unpleasant name to call someone:

In the playground, this was about the worst term of abuse you could use.

term of endearment

a kind or friendly name to call someone:

It was certainly meant as a term of endearment.

in terms of (also in ... terms)

used to describe which particular area of a subject you are discussing:

In financial terms, the project was not a success.

in no uncertain terms

in a very clear way:

She told him what she thought of his behaviour in no uncertain terms (= she made her disapproval very clear).

in strong, mild, etc. terms

using language that clearly shows your feelings:

He complained in the strongest terms.

More examplesFewer examples

"Speed bump" now seems to be the generally accepted term for those ridges in the road that slow traffic down.
Some people think that "fireman" is a sexist term, and prefer the term "firefighter".
The terms "drinking problem" and "alcohol abuse" are often interchangeable.
There is a useful glossary of technical terms at the back of the book.
"Idiot!" is a mild term of abuse.
If you know what each of the terms in the equation means, you can go further and expand your model.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Linguistics: terminology & vocabulary

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Calculations & calculating

Numerical relationships

term noun (RULES)

terms B2 [ plural ]

the conditions that control an agreement, arrangement, or activity:

under the terms of Under the terms of their contract, employees must give three months' notice if they leave.

on easy terms

If you buy something on easy terms, you pay for it over a period of time:

Loans were given on easy terms, with very low interest charges and up to 50 years to repay.

on equal terms (also on the same terms)

having the same rights, treatment, etc.:

All companies will compete for the government contract on equal terms.

terms of reference formal

the matters to which a study or report is limited:

There were complaints that the work that had been done did not fit the terms of reference.

Idioms

come to terms with something

be on good, friendly, etc. terms (with someone)

term

verb [ T ]

/tɜːm/ us

/tɝːm/

to give something a name or to describe it with a particular expression:

Technically, a horse that is smaller than 1.5 metres at the shoulder is termed a pony.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Defining & explaining

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-term

suffix

/ -tɜːm/ us

/ -tɝːm/

long/medium/short-term

lasting a long/medium/short time:

The project will have long-term benefits.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

In the future & soon

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(Definition of term from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

term | American Dictionary

term

noun [ C ]

/tɜrm/

term noun [C] (TIME)

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a period of time during which something lasts:

Watson’s term as chairman expired last month.

He served a prison term for robbery.

This budget plan is good for the long term but it hurts in the short term.

A term can be one of the periods into which a year is divided at a school or college:

I’m taking computer programming during the fall term.

term noun [C] (EXPRESSION)

a word or phrase used in relation to a particular subject:

Erikson is said to have coined the term "identity crisis."

mathematics

A term is also any number, variable (= symbol), or product (= result of mutiplying).

term

verb [ T ]

/tɜrm/

term verb [T]

to give something a name or to describe it with a particular expression:

None of the problems was termed serious.

(Definition of term from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

term | Business English

term

noun

/tɜːm/ us

Add to word list Add to word list

[ C ]

the period of time that something lasts for:

Friendly society bonds run for a minimum term of 10 years.

They proposed to increase the term of copyright.

The current interest rate of 7.75% is fixed for the term of the loan.

Conventional gilts promise to pay a fixed income over a fixed term.

The policy didn't reach its full term.

[ C ]

the period of time during which someone is in a job or position, or that a government is in power:

The appointments are for a fixed term of 12 months.

We're in the eighth month of our term of office.

[ C ] FINANCE

the period of time before something becomes due for payment:

They are seeking bonds with a term of 10 years.

Compare

tenor

[ C or U ]

the end of a period of time, for example when an agreement ends:

The endowed fund will reach term next year.

[ C ]

a word or expression used in relation to a particular subject, often for something official or technical:

legal/medical/technical term Labor negotiations had reached an "impasse," a legal term in labor law.

His favourite word was "loyal", a general term of approval.

We use the term "burn-out" to mean that they grow bored and lose the drive to improve and innovate.

[ C ]

one of the conditions of an agreement, arrangement, or activity:

There may be a term in the contract that excludes this.

We have agreed compensation terms.

Employers know that if they do not offer attractive terms and conditions, they cannot expect to recruit the best.

under the terms of an agreement/a contract/a deal Under the terms of the merger agreement, the company becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of the larger firm.

terms

[ plural ]

the conditions for payment that you agree to when you buy or sell something:

Their payment terms are sixty days.

on attractive/favourable/good terms The South Africans rescheduled Mozambique's debt on favourable terms.

be on good/bad/excellent terms (with sb)

to have a good, etc. relationship with sb:

He's on excellent terms with all of the sales staff.

in real terms

used to describe the real level or amount of something, when you consider all the things that affect it, especially inflation:

In the past 10 years, gross income has increased by 22% in real terms.

Total expenditure will rise in real terms by 3.3% a year.

in ... terms

saying something in a particular way:

She made her disagreement clear, in the strongest possible terms.

They spoke in glowing terms of his achievements.

in terms of sth (also in ... terms)

used to describe which particular area of a subject you are discussing:

In terms of emissions cleanliness, sugar ethanol is considered superior.

World-wide, stock prices rose in dollar terms.

Employees evaluate their salary not in absolute terms but relative to their co-workers.

in the long/medium/short term

for a long, medium or short period of time in the future:

In the long term, universities will cut jobs.

The business seeks to do very well in the short term and in the long term.

on equal terms (with sb/sth)

having the same rights or getting the same treatment as someone else:

They felt that they were not being allowed to compete on equal terms with local companies.

Examples of term

term

Hence, it is difficult to explain why players would conceive of the simultaneous move game in sequential terms.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Order is maintained by two means: direct management of the relations of the players and indirect structuring of the terms of play.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

At the outer edges of the plume, however, the production and destruction terms rapidly approach zero and advection and transport balance each other.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Qualitative researchers have also recognized the problem of hierarchical, nested levels of context, even if they have not expressed the problem in those terms.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Regrettably, the term "model" is used in far too many ways in both scientific and philosophical parlance.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This is because their phonetic ability is low and their functional knowledge (in terms of the recoverability principle) is not yet developed.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In the following, purely for convenience, we shall use the term 'illite' for this material.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These steps are here termed transportational cyclic steps, in order to distinguish them from the purely erosional cyclic steps considered below.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These could be explained in purely psychological terms.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Note that the above rule may be applied provided the scope of substituted names is localised to the term to be reduced.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The term refers to a disruption of interconnecting fibres that link spatially distributed regions in the brain.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The first author of this paper has based literally dozens of other implementations on it, unifying datatypes representing many different kinds of terms.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The inclusion of the terms representing associations allows for the infection with multiple species to be non-independent.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The first term represents a bare site and the next two terms refer to the interaction with water and with denaturant respectively.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

All other symmetric and perturbative states will continue to be represented by (2.6) and (2.7) with no source term.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with term

term

These are words often used in combination with term.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

accepted term

We have no great wealth, nor any tradition in the commonly accepted term.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

ambiguous term

Thus, a less ambiguous term, forgetting, will be used in the present paper.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

apocalyptic terms

He thus constructed a position that allowed him to condemn extremes in apocalyptic terms, but it was a stance that has confused later commentators.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all collocations with term

What is the pronunciation of term, -term?

A2,B2,B2,B2,C2,B2

Translations of term

in Chinese (Traditional)

時間, 期，期限, 學期…

in Chinese (Simplified)

时间, 期，期限, 学期…

in Spanish

plazo, período, trimestre…

in Portuguese

prazo, mandato, período…

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मुदत, कालावधी / शाळा, महाविद्यालय किंवा विद्यापीठ यामध्ये एक वर्ष विशिष्टपणे विभागले असण्याचा काळ…

（学校の）学期, （専門の）用語, 表現…

terim, deyim, tâbir…

terme [masculine], période [feminine], peine [feminine]…

trimestre, terme, termini…

termijn, semester, vakterm…

ஏதோ ஒன்று நீடிக்கும் நிலையான காலம், பள்ளி, கல்லூரி அல்லது பல்கலைக்கழகத்தில் ஒரு வருடம் பிரிக்கப்பட்ட காலங்களில் ஒன்று…

अवधि, समय की निश्चित अवधि, सत्र…

સત્ર, મુદત, અભિવ્યક્તિ (ઘણીવાર કોઈ સત્તાવાર અથવા તકનીકી વ્યાખ્યા આપે છે) શબ્દ…

periode, tid, semester…

tid, period, termin…

tempoh, penggal, istilah…

die Zeitdauer, das Semester, der Ausdruck…

uttrykk [neuter], betegnelse [masculine], ord [neuter]…

مدت, مقررہ وقت, مقررہ مدت (تعلیمی اداروں میں، سال کو پڑھائی کے لئے کئی مقررہ مدت یں بانٹ دیا جاتا ہے)…

термін, строк, семестр…

термин, срок, семестр…

ఏదో ఒక నిర్ణీత కాల వ్యవధి, టర్మ్, సాంకేతిక పదం…

فَصْل دِراسي, مُصْطَلَح, فَصْل…

মেয়াদ, নির্দিষ্ট সময়ের জন্য যা কিছু স্থায়ী হয়, স্কুল…

údobí, lhůta, termín…

masa, bagian tahun ajaran, istilah…

ระยะเวลาที่กำหนด, ภาคเรียน, คำศัพท์…

khoảng thời gian, kỳ học, thuật ngữ…

termin, okres, kadencja…

학기, 용어, 기간…

trimestre (scolastico), termine, periodo…

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TERF

tergite BETA

tergiversation

teriyaki

term

term assurance

term bill

term deposit

term insurance

Meaning of term in English

term noun (TIME)

term noun (EXPRESSION)

term noun (RULES)

Idioms

term | American Dictionary

term noun [C] (TIME)

term noun [C] (EXPRESSION)

term verb [T]

term | Business English

See also

Examples of term

Collocations with term

term

Translations of term

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