Term.
Synonyms:
| article, | denomination, | member, | phrase, |
| condition, | expression, | name, | word. |
Term in its figurative uses always retains something of its literal sense of a boundary or limit. The articles of a contract or other instrument are simply the portions into which it is divided for convenience; the terms are the essential statements on which its validity depends—as it were, the landmarks of its meaning or power; a condition is a contingent term which may become fixed upon the happening of some contemplated event. In logic a term is one of the essential members of a proposition, the boundary of statement in some one direction. Thus, in general use term is more restricted than word, expression, or phrase; a term is a word that limits meaning to a fixed point of statement or to a special class of subjects, as when we speak of the definition of terms, that is of the key-words in any discussion; or we say, that is a legal or scientific term. Compare BOUNDARY; DICTION.