environment
UK /ɪnˈvaɪ.ɹə.mənt/ · US /ɪnˈvaɪ.ɚn.mənt/ noun
Forms environments
- noun The surroundings of, and influences on, a particular item of interest.
- noun The natural world or ecosystem.
- noun All the elements that affect a system or its inputs and outputs.
- noun A particular political or social setting, arena or condition.
- noun (computing) The software or hardware existing on any particular computer system. “That program uses the Microsoft Windows environment.”
- noun (programming) The environment of a function at a point during the execution of a program is the set of identifiers in the function's scope and their bindings at that point.
- noun (computing) The set of variables and their values in a namespace that an operating system associates with a process.
Synonyms
domain ecosystem surrounding umbworld environs surroundings surround
Etymology
From Middle French environnement. Compare French environnement. By surface analysis, environ + -ment.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Act of environing; state of being environed.
- noun That which environs or surrounds; surrounding conditions, influences, or forces, by which living forms are influenced and modified in their growth and development.
Etymology [Cf. F. environnement.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “environment”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details