determinant
[dih-tur-muh-nuh nt]
- a determining agent or factor.
- Mathematics. an algebraic expression of the sum of products of elements, each with an appropriate algebraic sign, usually written in a square array and used in the solution of systems of linear equations.
- Also called antigenic determinant, epitope. Immunology. any site on an antigen molecule at which an antibody can bind, the chemical structure of the site determining the specific combining antibody.
- Genetics Archaic. a gene.
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Origin of determinant
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for determinant
Contemporary Examples
Political pressure, economic resources and the ability to navigate into a Kafkaesque bureaucracy play a determinant role.
In Italy, Religious Minorities Struggle (Vainly) for Official RecognitionAnna Momigliano
November 14, 2013
On 11 August 1947, he told the soon-to-be born nation that religion was not the determinant of Pakistani nationalism.
All seem to agree that Goldstone was a determinant of Israel's relatively restrained attack against Hamas this time around.
Historical Examples
We have already indicated that soil is a determinant in the choice of varieties.
Apple GrowingM. C. Burritt
For it is not a principle of the determinant but merely of the reflective Judgement.
Kant's Critique of JudgementImmanuel Kant
It belongs therefore to the reflective and not to the determinant judgement.
Kant's Critique of JudgementImmanuel Kant
Decomposition of a Determinant into complementary Determinants.
If that proportion is altered, so also is the character of the determinant.
On Germinal Selection as a Source of Definite VariationAugust Weismann
determinant
- serving to determine or affect
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- a factor, circumstance, etc, that influences or determines
- maths a square array of elements that represents the sum of certain products of these elements, used to solve simultaneous equations, in vector studies, etcCompare matrix (def. 9)
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for determinant
c.1600 (adj.); 1680s (n.), from Latin determinantem (nominative determinans), present participle of determinare (see determine).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
determinant
(dĭ-tûr′mə-nənt)- An influencing or determining element or factor.
- Antigenic determinant.
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- Tending or serving to determine.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.