frontier

American  

[fruhn-teer, fron-, fruhn-teer] / frʌnˈtɪər, frɒn-, ˈfrʌn tɪər /

noun

1. the part of a country that borders another country; boundary; border.

2. the land or territory that forms the furthest extent of a country's settled or inhabited regions.

3. Often frontiers.

   1. the limit of knowledge or the most advanced achievement in a particular field.

      the frontiers of physics.

   2. an outer limit in a field of endeavor, especially one in which the opportunities for research and development have not been exploited.

      the frontiers of space exploration.

4. Mathematics. boundary.

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or located on the frontier.

   a frontier town.

frontier British  

/ frʌnˈtɪə, ˈfrʌntɪə /

noun

1. 1. the region of a country bordering on another or a line, barrier, etc, marking such a boundary

   2. ( as modifier )

      a frontier post

2. 1. the edge of the settled area of a country

   2. ( as modifier )

      the frontier spirit

3. (often plural) the limit of knowledge in a particular field

   the frontiers of physics have been pushed back

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Related Words

See boundary.

Other Word Forms

• frontierless adjective
• frontierlike adjective
• semifrontier noun
• transfrontier adjective

Etymology

Origin of frontier

1350–1400; Middle English frounter < Old French frontier, equivalent to front (in the sense of opposite side; front ) + -ier -ier ²

Example Sentences

Agent friendly -- and open-source -- models, like the latest version of the Kimi K2 model from the startup Moonshot AI, released in November, are widely considered the next frontier in the generative AI revolution.

From Barron's

This variation in capabilities is sometimes referred to as the “jagged frontier.”

From The Wall Street Journal

Dr. Andrew Birley, CEO of the Vindolanda Charitable Trust and leader of ongoing excavations at the site, said the findings add to a growing picture of life on Rome's northern frontier.

From Science Daily

After that comes the return series in the UK in the summer of 2027 and the final frontier of winning an away Ashes – something Australia have not achieved since 2001.

From BBC

For years, the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems—everyone just calls it NeurIPS—was attended by only the most dedicated scientists on the frontier of artificial intelligence.

From The Wall Street Journal