# term

> English word · Noun · IPA /tɜːm/ · frequency rank #600

## Definitions
1. That which limits the extent of anything; limit, extremity, bound, boundary, terminus.
2. A chronological limitation or restriction, a limited timespan.
3. Any of the binding conditions or promises in a legal contract.
4. Specifically, the conditions in a legal contract that specify the price and also how and when payment must be made.
5. A point, line, or superficies that limits.
6. A word or phrase (e.g., noun phrase, verb phrase, open compound), especially one from a specialised area of knowledge; a name for a concept.
7. Relations among people.
8. Part of a year, especially one of the divisions of an academic year.
9. Duration of officeholding, or its limit; period in office of fixed length.
10. Duration of officeholding, or its limit; period in office of fixed length.
11. Duration of officeholding, or its limit; period in office of fixed length.
12. With respect to a pregnancy, the usual duration of gestation for the given species (for example, nine months in humans); (metonymic) the end of this duration: the timepoint at which birth usually happens (for example, in humans, approximately 40 weeks from conception), defining the due date.
13. The maximum period during which the patent can be maintained into force.
14. A menstrual period.
15. Any value (variable or constant) or expression separated from another term by a space or an appropriate character, in an overall expression or table.
16. The subject or the predicate of a proposition; one of the three component parts of a syllogism, each one of which is used twice.
17. An essential dignity in which unequal segments of every astrological sign have internal rulerships which affect the power and integrity of each planet in a natal chart.
18. A statue of the upper body, sometimes without the arms, ending in a pillar or pedestal.
19. A piece of carved work placed under each end of the taffrail.

## Etymology
From Middle English terme, borrowed from Old French terme, from Latin terminus (“a bound, boundary, limit, end; in Medieval Latin, also a time, period, word, covenant, etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *térmn̥ (“stump, end, boundary”).
Doublet of terminus and termon. Old English had termen, from the same source.

## Easily confused with
- **TM** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-tm)
- **try** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-try)
- **tom** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-tom)
- **Tim** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-tim)
- **tri** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-tri)
- **tor** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-tor)
- **Tex** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-tex)
- **tre** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-tre)
- **tra** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-tra)
- **tum** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-tum)
- **tru** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-tru)
- **tet** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-tet)
- **TRP** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-trp)
- **tur** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-tur)
- **TSM** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-tsm)
- **Tyr** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-tyr)
- **them** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-them)
- **turn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-turn)
- **test** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-test)
- **text** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/term-vs-text)

## Common misspellings (6)
`etrm`, `temr`, `termm`, `terrm`, `trem`, `tterm`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/term