context

Plural: contexts

Noun

• The circumstances surrounding an event or word that give it meaning.
• discourse that surrounds a language unit and helps to determine its interpretation
• the set of facts or circumstances that surround a situation or event
  • "the historical context"
• The surroundings, circumstances, environment, background or settings that determine, specify, or clarify the meaning of an event or other occurrence.
• The text in which a word or passage appears and which helps ascertain its meaning.
• The surroundings and environment in which an artifact is found and which may provide important clues about the artifact's function and/or cultural meaning.
• The trama or flesh of a mushroom.
• For a formula: a finite set of variables, which set contains all the free variables in the given formula.
• The data (register contents, program counter value, etc.) needed to switch to another thread of execution.

Verb

• To knit or bind together; to unite closely.

Adj

• Knit or woven together; close; firm.

Examples

• The CONTEXT of the letters on the board often dictated his strategic word choices.
• Without any context, I can't tell you if the "dish" refers to the food, or the thing you eat it on.
• —In what context did your attack on him happen? —We had a pretty tense relationship at the time, and when he insulted me I snapped.

Synonyms

circumstance, context of use, linguistic context, setting, backdrop, background, frame, framework, milieu, purlieus

Antonyms

isolation

Related Words

provenance, provenience, unprovenanced, unprovenienced

Anagrams of context