Adjacent Words

Internal definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

INTERN'AL, a. [L. internus.] Inward; interior; being within any limit or surface; not external. We speak of the internal parts of a body, of a bone, of the earth, etc. Internal excellence is opposed to external. The internal peace of man, is peace of mind or conscience. The internal evidence of the divine origin of the Scriptures, is the evidence which arises from the excellence of its precepts and their adaptation to the condition of man, or from other peculiarities.
1. Pertaining to the heart.
With our Savior, internal purity is every thing.
2. Intrinsic; real; as the internal rectitude of actions.
3. Confined to a country; domestic; not foreign; as the internal trade of a state or kingdom; internal troubles or dissensions; internal war. Internal taxes are taxes on the lands and other property within a state or kingdom; opposed to external taxes.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: happening or arising or located within some limits or especially surface; "internal organs"; "internal mechanism of a toy"; "internal party maneuvering" [ant: external]
2: occurring within an institution or community; "intragroup squabbling within the corporation" [syn: internal, intragroup]
3: inside the country; "the British Home Office has broader responsibilities than the United States Department of the Interior"; "the nation's internal politics" [syn: home, interior, internal, national]
4: located inward; "Beethoven's manuscript looks like a bloody record of a tremendous inner battle"- Leonard Bernstein; "she thinks she has no soul, no interior life, but the truth is that she has no access to it"- David Denby; "an internal sense of rightousness"- A.R.Gurney,Jr. [syn: inner, interior, internal]
5: innermost or essential; "the inner logic of Cubism"; "the internal contradictions of the theory"; "the intimate structure of matter" [syn: inner, internal, intimate]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle English internalle, from Latin internus; akin to Latin inter between Date: 15th century 1. existing or situated within the limits or surface of something: as a. (1) situated near the inside of the body (2) situated on the side toward the median plane of the body b. of, relating to, or occurring on the inside of an organized structure (as a club, company, or state) <internal affairs> 2. relating or belonging to or existing within the mind 3. intrinsic, inherent <internal evidence of forgery in a document> 4. present or arising within an organism or one of its parts <internal stimulus> 5. applied or intended for application through the stomach by being swallowed <an internal remedy> • internality noun • internally adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. 1 of or situated in the inside or invisible part. 2 relating or applied to the inside of the body (internal injuries). 3 of a nation's domestic affairs. 4 (of a student) attending a university etc. as well as taking its examinations. 5 used or applying within an organization. 6 a of the inner nature of a thing; intrinsic. b of the mind or soul. --n. (in pl.) intrinsic qualities. Phrases and idioms: internal-combustion engine an engine with its motive power generated by the explosion of gases or vapour with air in a cylinder. internal energy the energy in a system arising from the relative positions and interactions of its parts. internal evidence evidence derived from the contents of the thing discussed. internal exile see EXILE n. 1. internal rhyme a rhyme involving a word in the middle of a line and another at the end of the line or in the middle of the next. Derivatives: internality n. internalize v.tr. (also -ise). internalization n. internally adv. Etymology: mod.L internalis (as INTERN)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Internal In*tern"al, a. [L. internus; akin to interior. See Interior.] 1. Inward; interior; being within any limit or surface; inclosed; -- opposed to external; as, the internal parts of a body, or of the earth. 2. Derived from, or dependent on, the thing itself; inherent; as, the internal evidence of the divine origin of the Scriptures. 3. Pertaining to its own affairs or interests; especially, (said of a country) domestic, as opposed to foreign; as, internal trade; internal troubles or war. 4. Pertaining to the inner being or the heart; spiritual. With our Savior, internal purity is everything. --Paley. 5. Intrinsic; inherent; real. [R.] The internal rectitude of our actions in the sight of God. --Rogers.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sense Sense, n. [L. sensus, from sentire, sensum, to perceive, to feel, from the same root as E. send; cf. OHG. sin sense, mind, sinnan to go, to journey, G. sinnen to meditate, to think: cf. F. sens. For the change of meaning cf. See, v. t. See Send, and cf. Assent, Consent, Scent, v. t., Sentence, Sentient.] 1. (Physiol.) A faculty, possessed by animals, of perceiving external objects by means of impressions made upon certain organs (sensory or sense organs) of the body, or of perceiving changes in the condition of the body; as, the senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. See Muscular sense, under Muscular, and Temperature sense, under Temperature. Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep. --Shak. What surmounts the reach Of human sense I shall delineate. --Milton. The traitor Sense recalls The soaring soul from rest. --Keble. 2. Perception by the sensory organs of the body; sensation; sensibility; feeling. In a living creature, though never so great, the sense and the affects of any one part of the body instantly make a transcursion through the whole. --Bacon. 3. Perception through the intellect; apprehension; recognition; understanding; discernment; appreciation. This Basilius, having the quick sense of a lover. --Sir P. Sidney. High disdain from sense of injured merit. --Milton. 4. Sound perception and reasoning; correct judgment; good mental capacity; understanding; also, that which is sound, true, or reasonable; rational meaning. ``He speaks sense.'' --Shak. He raves; his words are loose As heaps of sand, and scattering wide from sense. --Dryden. 5. That which is felt or is held as a sentiment, view, or opinion; judgment; notion; opinion. I speak my private but impartial sense With freedom. --Roscommon. The municipal council of the city had ceased to speak the sense of the citizens. --Macaulay. 6. Meaning; import; signification; as, the true sense of words or phrases; the sense of a remark. So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense. --Neh. viii. 8. I think 't was in another sense. --Shak. 7. Moral perception or appreciation. Some are so hardened in wickedness as to have no sense of the most friendly offices. --L' Estrange. 8. (Geom.) One of two opposite directions in which a line, surface, or volume, may be supposed to be described by the motion of a point, line, or surface. Common sense, according to Sir W. Hamilton: (a) ``The complement of those cognitions or convictions which we receive from nature, which all men possess in common, and by which they test the truth of knowledge and the morality of actions.'' (b) ``The faculty of first principles.'' These two are the philosophical significations. (c) ``Such ordinary complement of intelligence, that,if a person be deficient therein, he is accounted mad or foolish.'' (d) When the substantive is emphasized: ``Native practical intelligence, natural prudence, mother wit, tact in behavior, acuteness in the observation of character, in contrast to habits of acquired learning or of speculation.'' Moral sense. See under Moral, (a) . The inner, or internal, sense, capacity of the mind to be aware of its own states; consciousness; reflection. ``This source of ideas every man has wholly in himself, and though it be not sense, as having nothing to do with external objects, yet it is very like it, and might properly enough be called internal sense.'' --Locke. Sense capsule (Anat.), one of the cartilaginous or bony cavities which inclose, more or less completely, the organs of smell, sight, and hearing. Sense organ (Physiol.), a specially irritable mechanism by which some one natural force or form of energy is enabled to excite sensory nerves; as the eye, ear, an end bulb or tactile corpuscle, etc. Sense organule (Anat.), one of the modified epithelial cells in or near which the fibers of the sensory nerves terminate. Syn: Understanding; reason. Usage: Sense, Understanding, Reason. Some philosophers have given a technical signification to these terms, which may here be stated. Sense is the mind's acting in the direct cognition either of material objects or of its own mental states. In the first case it is called the outer, in the second the inner, sense. Understanding is the logical faculty, i. e., the power of apprehending under general conceptions, or the power of classifying, arranging, and making deductions. Reason is the power of apprehending those first or fundamental truths or principles which are the conditions of all real and scientific knowledge, and which control the mind in all its processes of investigation and deduction. These distinctions are given, not as established, but simply because they often occur in writers of the present day.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Internal is used to describe things that exist or happen inside a country or organization. The country stepped up internal security... We now have a Europe without internal borders... ADJ: ADJ n • internally The state is not a unified and internally coherent entity. ADV 2. Internal is used to describe things that exist or happen inside a particular person, object, or place. ...massive internal bleeding... Some of the internal walls of my house are made of plasterboard. ADJ: ADJ n • internally Evening primrose oil is used on the skin as well as taken internally... ADV: usu ADV with v, also ADV with cl, ADV adj

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Interior, inner, inward, inside. 2. Spiritual, incorporeal, mental, in the mind or heart. 3. [Said of meaning or sense.] Inner, interior, under, hidden, deeper, higher, spiritual, secret, metaphorical, emblematic, symbolical. 4. Intrinsic, real, genuine, true. 5. Domestic, home, interior (as opposed to foreign).

Moby Thesaurus

bosom, center, central, cerebral, conceptive, conceptual, core, deep, deep-seated, deepest recesses, endopsychic, esoteric, gut, heart, heart of hearts, home, immanent, implanted, implicit, inalienable, indoor, indwelling, infixed, ingrained, inherent, inland, inmost, inner, inner landscape, inner life, inner man, inner nature, inner recess, inner self, innermost, inside, intellectual, intelligent, interior, interior man, intern, intestine, intimate, intrados, intrinsic, inward, inwrought, irreducible, mental, municipal, national, native, noetic, noological, penetralia, phrenic, private, psychic, psychologic, rational, reasoning, recesses, resident, secret, secret place, secret places, soul, spiritual, subjective, thinking, unalienable, unchallengeable, unquestionable, visceral, vital center, vitals