context

English

Etymology

From Latin contextus.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒntɛkst/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑːntɛkst/

Noun

context (plural contexts)

1. The surroundings, circumstances, environment, background or settings that determine, specify, or clarify the meaning of an event or other occurrence.

   In what context did your attack on him happen? - We had a pretty tense relationship at the time, and when he insulted me I snapped.

   • 2012 September 7, Phil McNulty, “Moldova 0-5 England”, in BBC Sport^[1]:

     The display and result must be placed in the context that was it was against a side that looked every bit their Fifa world ranking of 141 - but England completed the job with efficiency to record their biggest away win in 19 years.

2. (linguistics) The text in which a word or passage appears and which helps ascertain its meaning.
3. (archaeology) The surroundings and environment in which an artifact is found and which may provide important clues about the artifact's function and/or cultural meaning.
4. (mycology) The trama or flesh of a mushroom.
5. (logic) For a formula: a finite set of variables, which set contains all the free variables in the given formula.

Antonyms

• isolation

Derived terms

context-dependent context-free context-sensitive in context, compare in isolation

keyword in context, KWIC keyword out of context, KWOC out of context take out of context

Translations

text in which a word appears

• Arabic: سِيَاق m (siyāq)
• Armenian: համատեքստ (hamatekʿst)
• Bulgarian: контекст (bg) m (kontékst)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 上下文 (zh) (shàngxiàwén), 語境 (zh), 语境 (zh) (yǔjìng), 前後文 (zh), 前后文 (zh) (qiánhòuwén)

• Czech: kontext (cs)
• Dutch: context (nl) m
• Esperanto: kunteksto
• Estonian: kontekst
• Finnish: konteksti (fi), asiayhteys, yhteys (fi)
• French: contexte (fr) m
• German: Kontext (de) m
• Greek: πλαίσιο (el) n (plaísio)
• Hungarian: szövegkörnyezet (hu), kontextus (hu)
• Irish: comhthéacs m
• Italian: contesto (it) m

• Japanese: 文脈 (bunmyaku), 前後関係 (zengokankei)
• Korean: 문맥 (ko) (munmaek) (文脈 (ko)), 맥락 (ko) (maengnak) (脈絡 (ko))
• Manx: co-lhaih, cohecks
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sammenheng (no) m, kontekst (no) m

  Nynorsk: samanheng m, kontekst m

• Persian: زمینه (fa)
• Polish: kontekst (pl) m
• Portuguese: contexto (pt) m
• Romanian: context (ro) n
• Russian: конте́кст (ru) m (kontékst)
• Scottish Gaelic: co-theacsa m
• Spanish: contexto m
• Swedish: kontext (sv) c
• Tagalog: kalamnan
• Uzbek: kontekst (uz)

circumstances or settings

• Arabic: حَالَة (ar) f (ḥāla)
• Armenian: համատեքստ (hamatekʿst)
• Bulgarian: обстановка (bg) f (obstanóvka), ситуация (bg) f (situácija)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 場合 (zh), 场合 (zh) (chǎnghé), 情況 (zh), 情况 (zh) (qíngkuàng), 背景 (zh) (bèijǐng), 環境 (zh), 环境 (zh) (huánjìng)

• Dutch: context (nl) m
• Finnish: asiayhteys, yhteys (fi)
• French: contexte (fr) m
• German: Kontext (de) m, Zusammenhang (de) m
• Greek: συμφραζόμενα (el) n pl (symfrazómena), πλαίσιο (el) n (plaísio)
• Hebrew: הקשר m (heqsher)
• Hungarian: összefüggés (hu)
• Irish: comhthéacs m

• Italian: contesto (it) m
• Japanese: 前後関係 (zengokankei), 状況 (ja) (jōkyō)
• Korean: 맥락 (ko) (maengnak) (脈絡 (ko)), 짜임새 (ko) (jjaimsae), 바탕 (ko) (batang)
• Maori: horopaki
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sammenheng (no) m, kontekst (no) m

  Nynorsk: samanheng m, kontekst m

• Polish: kontekst (pl) m
• Portuguese: contexto (pt) m
• Romanian: context (ro) n
• Russian: обстано́вка (ru) f (obstanóvka), ситуа́ция (ru) f (situácija)
• Scottish Gaelic: co-theacsa m
• Spanish: contexto m, marco (es) m
• Swedish: sammanhang (sv) n, kontext (sv) c
• Tagalog: kalamnan
• Telugu: సందర్భం (te) (saṃdarbhaṃ)

Quotations

• For usage examples of this term, see Citations:context.

Verb

context (third-person singular simple present contexts, present participle contexting, simple past and past participle contexted)

1. (obsolete) To knit or bind together; to unite closely.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Feltham to this entry?)

   • R. Junius

     The whole world's frame, which is contexted only by commerce and contracts.

Adjective

context (comparative more context, superlative most context)

1. (obsolete) Knit or woven together; close; firm.
   • Derham

     The coats, without, are context and callous.

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Catalan

Noun

context m (plural contexts or contextos)

1. context