externality
Americannoun
plural
externalities-
the state or quality of being external to or outside someone or something; the fact of being outer, outward, or on the surface.
A child just learning to speak already has a sense of the externality of the world.
-
something external; an outward feature, or all outward features considered together.
One can be too preoccupied with the externalities of religion.
-
excessive attention to external or outward features; superficiality.
The article explores the externality of identity in a world of media-constructed self-image.
-
a side effect of some process or activity, especially a negative effect of an economic activity that is not accounted for in the price of what is produced.
Externalities such as air pollution are sometimes eliminated through government regulation.
They argue that there is an externality from breeding new pets, as the cute babies crowd out older pets.
Other Word Forms
- nonexternality noun
Etymology
Origin of externality
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.
“Not pricing in that ‘negative externality’ — as economists put it — has been the greatest market failure of all time.”
From Salon
"In economics, we call that externality," she said.
From Science Daily
In traditional economics-speak, hidden costs are known as externalities – spillover effects from production that are caused by one party but paid for by another.
From Salon
Analysts think environmental externalities may come under greater scrutiny for waste-to-energy projects selling offsets as the global carbon market evolves beyond the Clean Development Mechanism to a new U.N.-run program.
From Seattle Times
“We create prosperous and exclusive communities, but in so doing also create neighborhoods with concentrated despair — the externality of stockpiled opportunity.”
From Seattle Times
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.
