determinate
Americanadjective
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having defined limits; definite.
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settled; positive.
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conclusive; final.
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Botany. (of an inflorescence) having the primary and each secondary axis ending in a flower or bud, thus preventing further elongation.
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Engineering.
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(of a structure) able to be analyzed completely by means of the principles of statics.
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(of a member of a structure) subject only to definite, known stresses.
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(of a stress) able to be determined through the principles of statics.
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verb (used with object)
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to make certain of.
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to identify.
adjective
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definitely limited, defined, or fixed; distinct
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a less common word for determined
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able to be predicted or deduced
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(of an effect) obeying the law of causality
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botany (of an inflorescence) having the main and branch stems ending in flowers and unable to grow further; cymose
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(of a structure, stress, etc) able to be fully analysed or determined
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Precisely determined, limited, or defined.
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Not continuing to grow at an apical meristem. In the cyme, a determinate inflorescence, for example, the first floret develops at the end of the meristem, and no further elongation of the inflorescence can occur.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of determinate
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin dēterminātus, past participle of dētermināre. See determine, -ate 1
Explanation
Do you have a determinate personal budget? Welcome to the club. So do most people, unless you happen to be Warren Buffet or Bill Gates. Anything determinate has a fixed limit to it. Slightly differently, determinate can also refer to something that has a clearly visible limit of form. For example, although no two snowflakes are ever exactly alike, they all share a certain "determinate form," that is they all have six arms.
Vocabulary lists containing determinate
Dirty Words: The Language of Gardening
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"The Lady, or the Tiger?" by Frank R. Stockton
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Twelfth Night
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In the email to Lees, seen by the BBC, the officer writes the two prisoners can have their custodial terms reduced as they are serving a standard determinate sentence.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
The French Revolution then dynamited Europe’s old order and dynamized society as a collective organism, evolving in a “quasi-biological and determinate way.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
Jones was given an extended determinate sentence, where an offender receives a fixed jail term and an extended period on licence after their release.
From BBC ● Nov. 22, 2023
Determinate tomatoes: McKeever makes the case for determinate tomatoes, which are tomatoes that stay bushy instead of vining out and have a more set production, as these have more compact root systems.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 25, 2023
Substantial Forms, Occult Qualities, Intentional Species, Idiosyncrasies, Sympathies and Antipathies of Things, are exploded...because they are only empty Sounds, Words whereof no Man can form a certain and determinate Idea.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
That's precisely what them men war determinated not ter be!
From The Young Mountaineers Short Stories by Malcolm Fraser
The New Englanders were anxious to buy the lands, but were earnest in their determinating to exclude slavery from the new territory.
From The Winning of the West, Volume 3 The Founding of the Trans-Alleghany Commonwealths, 1784-1790 by Theodore Roosevelt
If we must look for some determinating influences during the childhood of Schiller, they are chiefly to be found in the character of his father.
From Chips From A German Workshop. Vol. III. Essays on Literature, Biography, and Antiquities by F. Max (Friedrich Max) Müller
Its character is such that it becomes the determinating factor of human adaptations to the conditions imposed by the environment, by envisaging the enduring and efficacious elements among these conditions as persons.
From Creative Intelligence Essays in the Pragmatic Attitude by Boyd H. Bode
But even to-day what do we find the general reliance of the American mind in determinating this question?
From Civilization the Primal Need of the Race The American Negro Academy. Occasional Paper No. 3 by Alexander Crummell
The sulphuric compounds are related and yet opposed to the growth determinating phosphoric compounds.
From Valere Aude Dare to Be Healthy, Or, The Light of Physical Regeneration by Louis Dechmann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
