Noun

(en noun)

Limitation, restriction or regulation. (rfex)

Any of the binding conditions or promises in a legal contract.

That which limits the extent of anything; limit; extremity; bound; boundary.

* Francis Bacon

Corruption is a reciprocal to generation, and they two are as nature's two terms , or boundaries.

(geometry) A point, line, or superficies that limits.

A line is the term''' of a superficies, and a superficies is the '''term of a solid.

A word or phrase, especially one from a specialised area of knowledge.

"Algorithm" is a term used in computer science.

Relations among people.

* , chapter=22

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part.

Part of a year, especially one of the three parts of an academic year.

(mathematics) Any value (variable or constant) or expression separated from another term by a space or an appropriate character, in an overall expression or table.

(logic) The subject or the predicate of a proposition; one of the three component parts of a syllogism, each one of which is used twice.

* Sir W. Hamilton

The subject and predicate of a proposition are, after Aristotle, together called its terms or extremes.

(architecture) A quadrangular pillar, adorned on top with the figure of a head, as of a man, woman, or satyr.

Duration of a set length; period in office of fixed length.

(computing) A terminal emulator, a program that emulates a video terminal.

(of a patent) The maximum period during which the patent can be maintained into force.

(astrology) An essential dignity in which unequal segments of every astrological sign have internal rulerships which affect the power and integrity of each planet in a natal chart.

(archaic) A menstrual period.

* 1660 , (Samuel Pepys), Diary

My wife, after the absence of her terms for seven weeks, gave me hopes of her being with child, but on the last day of the year she hath them again.

(nautical) A piece of carved work placed under each end of the taffrail.

Noun

(uncountable) The quality of being different.

(countable) A characteristic of something that makes it different from something else.

* {{quote-magazine, title=Towards the end of poverty

, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=11, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.}}

(countable) A disagreement or argument.

We have our little differences , but we are firm friends.

* Shakespeare

What was the difference ? It was a contention in public.

* T. Ellwood

Away therefore went I with the constable, leaving the old warden and the young constable to compose their difference as they could.

(countable, uncountable) Significant change in or effect on a situation or state.

* 1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows)

The line of the horizon was clear and hard against the sky, and in one particular quarter it showed black against a silvery climbing phosphorescence that grew and grew. At last, over the rim of the waiting earth the moon lifted with slow majesty till it swung clear of the horizon and rode off, free of moorings; and once more they began to see surfaces—meadows wide-spread, and quiet gardens, and the river itself from bank to bank, all softly disclosed, all washed clean of mystery and terror, all radiant again as by day, but with a difference that was tremendous.

(countable) The result of a subtraction; sometimes the absolute value of this result.

(obsolete) Choice; preference.

* Spenser

That now be chooseth with vile difference / To be a beast, and lack intelligence.

(heraldry) An addition to a coat of arms to distinguish two people's bearings which would otherwise be the same. See augmentation and cadency.

(logic) The quality or attribute which is added to those of the genus to constitute a species; a differentia.

(logic circuits) A Boolean operation which is TRUE when the two input variables are different but is otherwise FALSE; the XOR operation ($\backslash scriptstyle\; A\; \backslash overline\; B\; +\; \backslash overline\; A\; B$).

(relational algebra) the set of elements that are in one set but not another ($\backslash scriptstyle\; A\; \backslash overline\; B$).