ramification

[ram-uh-fi-key-shuh n]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR ramification ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

the act or process of ramifying.

a branch: ramifications of a nerve.

a related or derived subject, problem, etc.; outgrowth; consequence; implication: The new tax law proved to have many ramifications unforeseen by the lawmakers.

Botany.

a structure formed of branches.
a configuration of branching parts.

Origin of ramification

1670–80; < Middle French < Medieval Latin rāmificāt(us) (past participle of rāmificāre to ramify) + Middle French -ion -ion

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for ramification

consequence, upshot, complication, subdivision, extension, division, outgrowth, sequel, partition, radiation, excrescence, branch, offshoot, divarication, breaking, result, branching, bifurcation

Examples from the Web for ramification

Historical Examples of ramification

It is not growing strongly, and is as simple as possible in ramification.
Modern Painters, Volume V (of 5)
John Ruskin
But in other species the ramification of the apophyses assumes more the form of bifurcation or of irregular branching.
Report on the Radiolaria Collected by H.M.S. Challenger During the Years 1873-1876, First Part: Porulosa (Spumellaria and Acantharia)
Ernst Haeckel
There are sometimes other complications in the ramification of the tube, but these need not detain us.
Spiders
Cecil Warburton
It led into a ramification of small passages and tunnels underground.
The Matabele Campaign
R. S. S. Baden-Powell
We determined to keep up the etiquette of refined life in its every ramification.
Wanted: A Cook
Alan Dale

British Dictionary definitions for ramification

ramification

noun

the act or process of ramifying or branching out

an offshoot or subdivision

(often plural) a subsidiary consequence, esp one that complicates

a structure of branching parts

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 ramification

1670s, "a branching out," from French ramification, from ramifier (see ramify). Transferred sense of "outgrowth, consequence" first recorded 1755. Related: Ramifications.

ramification in Medicine

ramification

[răm′ə-fĭ-kā′shən]

n.

A branching shape or arrangement.