method

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmɛθəd/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Hyphenation: meth‧od

Etymology 1

From Middle French methode, from Ancient Greek μέθοδος (méthodos, “pursuit of knowledge, investigation, mode of prosecuting such inquiry, system”), from μετά (metá, “after”) +‎ ὁδός (hodós, “way, motion, journey”).

Noun

method (countable and uncountable, plural methods)

  1. A process by which a task is completed; a way of doing something (followed by the adposition of, to or for before the purpose of the process):
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 3, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.
    • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 206-7:
      Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close […] above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them. Many insects probably use this strategy, which is a close analogy to crypsis in the visible world—camouflage and other methods for blending into one’s visual background.
    One method of exercising a cat consists of making it follow the spot generated by a laser pointer.
    If one method doesn't work, you should ask a friend to help you.
  2. A type of theatrical acting wherein the actor utilizes his personal emotions from personal experience to portray a scripted scene.
  3. (object-oriented programming) A subroutine or function belonging to a class or object.
  4. (slang) Marijuana.
Hyponyms
Translations

Verb

method (third-person singular simple present methods, present participle methoding, simple past and past participle methoded)

  1. (transitive) to apply a method
  2. (casting, by extension, transitive) to apply particular treatment methods to a mold
    The company employs extensive use of 3D modelling combined with solidification simulation to ensure that critical castings are properly methoded.
Translations

Etymology 2

Abbreviation.

Noun

method (plural methods)

  1. (skateboarding, snowboarding) Ellipsis of method air .

Anagrams

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