determinant
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A determining factor; an element that determines the nature of something.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihturmuhnuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈtɝmənənt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A determining or causal element or factor
“Education is an important determinant of one's outlook on life.”
A determining factor; an element that determines the nature of something.
linear algebra
A scalar that encodes certain characteristics of a given transformation matrix; the unique scalar function over square matrices which is distributive over matrix multiplication, multilinear in the rows and columns, and takes the value 1 for the unit matrix; abbreviated as: det.
adjective
Serving to determine or limit; determinative.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A determining or causal element or factor
Used this way, determinant is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“Education is an important determinant of one's outlook on life.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “determinant of …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Natural pattern: determinant of …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use determinant
- “Education is an important determinant of one's outlook on life.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The site on the surface of an antigen molecule to which an antibody attaches itself.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.