EXTERNAL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of External

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/ɪkstˈərnəl/ Listen

adjective

External adj.

Outward; exterior; relating to the outside, as of a body; being without; acting from without; opposed to internal; as, the external form or surface of a body. "Of all external things,... She (Fancy) forms imaginations, aery shapes."

Outside of or separate from ourselves; (Metaph.) separate from the perceiving mind.

Outwardly perceptible; visible; physical or corporeal, as distinguished from mental or moral. "Her virtues graced with external gifts."

Not intrinsic nor essential; accidental; accompanying; superficial. "The external circumstances are greatly different."

Foreign; relating to or connected with foreign nations; as, external trade or commerce; the external relations of a state or kingdom.

(Anat.) Away from the mesial plane of the body; lateral.

External angles. (Geom.) See under Angle.

noun

External n. Something external or without; outward part; that which makes a show, rather than that which is intrinsic; visible form; usually in the plural. "Adam was then no less glorious in his externals" "God in externals could not place content."

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Etymology of 'External'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"External" Quotes from Famous Books

... or fancied another change—in her stature. She appeared to have grown larger and taller—in both respects, almost equalling her sister—and resembling the latter in that full development of form, which was one of the characteristic features of her queen-like beauty. These were the only changes external. Even the simple costume—the old homespun frock of yellowish stripe—still enveloped her form; no longer hanging loosely as of yore, but presenting a more sparing fit on account of the increased dimensions ...

— The Wild Huntress - Love in the Wilderness • Mayne Reid

... all its variations, which becomes larger as its distance from the object is greater, has its external lines intersecting in the middle, between the light and the object. This proposition is very evident and is confirmed by experience. For, if a b is a window without any object interposed, the luminous atmosphere to the right hand at a is seen ...

— The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, Complete • Leonardo Da Vinci

... not as a business man. Economic equality in such things as she can do is as unlike to a similarity in work which ignores sex conditions as a business corporation is to the government under whose laws it exists and by which its rights are defended. But even the external conditions are not so changed as might at first appear. The statistical proof of the youth of the majority of workers, the comparatively small number out of the whole population who go into business, and the fact that the domestic ...

— Woman and the Republic • Helen Kendrick Johnson

... library is a goodly sight. We do not underrate the external value of books, when we say it is the invisible which forms their chief charm. Sometimes rather too much is said about "tall copies," and "large-paper copies," and "first editions," the binding, paper, type, and all the rest of the outside attraction, or the fancy ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 97, November, 1865 • Various

... mean to recount all the misunderstandings which existed between my father and Turgenieff, which ended in a complete breach between them in 1861. The actual external facts of that story are common property, and there is no need to repeat them. [17] According to general opinion, the quarrel between the two greatest writers of the day arose out of ...

— Reminiscences of Tolstoy - By His Son • Ilya Tolstoy

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