embedded

[ em-bed-id ]

adjective

1. fixed or snugly enclosed in a surrounding mass:

   The young turtles are weighed, measured, and tagged with an embedded microchip before being released back into the salt marsh.

2. incorporated into something as an essential characteristic:

   In any cultural context, deeply embedded values and attitudes can be difficult to change.

3. 1. being or relating to a journalist assigned to travel with a military unit or political campaign:

      He was an embedded reporter with the First Marine Division during the invasion of Iraq.

   2. working closely with a group or participating in a special event as an invited expert, creative professional, etc.:

      As Radio 3’s first embedded composer, he is writing one new piece of music a week for the breakfast show.

4. Digital Technology. (of text, images, sound, or code) placed in a computer file, HTML document, software program, or electronic device:

   Click here or watch the embedded video below to learn more about the work of our Foundation.

5. Grammar. (of a construction, as a phrase or clause) inserted into a larger construction, as a clause or sentence:

   Informative texts often include unfamiliar technical vocabulary and complex sentences with embedded clauses.

6. Histology. (of biological tissue) infiltrated with melted paraffin or other such material that later solidifies, enabling the preparation to be sliced very thin for viewing under a microscope (sometimes used in combination):

   The fixed and paraffin-embedded tissues were cut into sections 5 μm thick and mounted on glass slides.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of embed ( def ).

Word History and Origins

Origin of embedded¹

embed ( def ) + -ed ²( def )

Example Sentences

The processes underlying these industries are so old, embedded, and entrenched in society and the economy that it’s almost impossible to conceive of changing them.

From MIT Technology Review

I think after awhile you become so embedded, so satisfied with the way things work here that you might lose your edge.

From Time

Some become embedded and pass into the bloodstream, carried from lungs to other organs.

From Popular-Science

Add in the fact that apps like Uber and Doordash will be rolling out their own embedded payment capabilities among other future developments, and it paints the clear picture that the future of payments will increasingly be fueled by mobile wallets.

From Ozy

That is the difference between the protections embedded in our Bill of Rights and the lived lives of our citizenry.

From The Daily Beast

The Affordable Care Act is safely embedded, with repeal unlikely even with a freshly minted Republican Senate.

From The Daily Beast

In doing so, he implied the obsolescence of that most embedded of British watering holes, the pub.

From The Daily Beast

I just felt myself getting better and better, stronger and stronger as a filmmaker, and that is sort of embedded in the movies.

From The Daily Beast

My finger burned when it touched the blossom of lead embedded in the ceramic armor.

From The Daily Beast

The house itself was embedded in a thickly-wooded garden where the trees were just budding into leaf.

From Project Gutenberg

If you can overturn a rock whose roots are embedded in the depths of ocean, you may hope to turn him from his purpose.

From Project Gutenberg

It lives in the large intestine, especially the cecum, with its slender extremity embedded in the mucous membrane.

From Project Gutenberg

The anchor ties are connected to girders embedded in large concrete blocks in the foundations of the approach viaducts.

From Project Gutenberg

Whenever they passed an embedded fakir, they obtained an incantation from his lips, but still Baal-Zeboub failed.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• fixed
• ingrained
• installed
• planted