Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One that adds, especially a computational device that performs arithmetic addition.
- n. See viper.
- n. Any of several nonvenomous snakes, such as the milk snake of North America, popularly believed to be harmful.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One who adds.
- n. An instrument for performing addition.
- n. The popular English name of the viper, Vipera communis, now Pelias berus, a common venomous serpent of Europe (and the only poisonous British reptile), belonging to the family Viperidæ, of the suborder Solenoglypha, of the order Ophidia. It grows to a length of about 2 feet, of which the tail constitutes one eighth; the head is oval, with a blunt snout; the color varies from brown or olive to brownish-yellow, variegated with a row of large confluent rhombic spots along the middle line of the back, and a row of small black or blackish spots on each side. Though the adder is venomous, its bite is not certainly known to be fatal.
- n. A name loosely applied to various snakes more or less resembling the viper, Pelias berus: as By the translators of the authorized version of the Bible, to several different species of venomous serpents.
- n. The sea-stickleback or adder-fish. See adder-fish.
Wiktionary
- n. A snake.
- n. A small venomous serpent of the genus Vipera. The common European adder is the Vipera (or Pelias) berus. The puff adders of Africa are species of the genus Clotho.
- n. Any of several small nonvenomous snakes resembling the adder, such as the milk snake.
- n. Someone who or something which performs arithmetic addition.
- n. Something which adds or increases.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One who, or that which, adds; esp., a machine for adding numbers.
- n. A serpent.
- n. A small venomous serpent of the genus Vipera. The common European adder is the Vipera berus or Pelias berus. The puff adders of Africa are species of Clotho.
- n. In America, the term is commonly applied to several harmless snakes, as the milk adder, puffing adder, etc.
- n. Same as Sea Adder.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a machine that adds numbers
- n. a person who adds numbers
- n. small terrestrial viper common in northern Eurasia
Etymologies
- Middle English, from an addre, alteration of a naddre, a snake, from Old English nǣdre, snake.
Examples
“The puff adder is a short, thick viper that is responsible for more bites than any other serpent in Africa.”
“(Then tell LiveJournal that their link adder is borked.)”
“I just added support for Blog This! in my tag adder user script.”
“Ok.. my tag adder is updated for the restyled BlogThis!”
“One of them played with a litter of young hares; another ran a race with some young crows, which had hopped from their nest before they were really ready; a third caught up an adder from the ground and wound it around his neck and arm.”
“Add-er-all makes you a human calculator; "addict" is in there, also "adder" -- you become a regular viper . . . anyway, it sounds like bipolar people's description of mania.”
Are you taking drugs to enhance your intellectual performance?
“This means that a simple "adder", a logic array that adds two integers together, will no longer have just the logic needed to perform the addition, but a significant amount of additional logic to perform a simultaneous ECC for the entire operation.”
“Furthermore, this theory is horribly anglocentric as it’s not as if the adder is the only venomous snake that inhabits the same range as the slow-worm (in Britain, adders are the only venomous native snake).”
“The Hebrew means a kind of adder, more venomous than the asp;”
“Sun dapples a bank from which an adder slips away.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘adder’.
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Snakes
python, adder, snake, asp, cobra, bull snake, copperhead, sea snake, viper, boa, cottonmouth, rattlesnake and 10 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (A)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
abalone, abbey, abundant, aconite, acorn, addled, adept, aeon, aerie, aglow, ague, aire and 99 more...
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The Old English Influence
Modern English words impacted by and descended from Old English.
a, aback, abaft, abide, about, above, abode, accursed, accurst, ache, acknowledge, acorn and 109 more...
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The O.U.P. Junior Dictionary Death Row
Another news story about words being removed from a dictionary before their time. See also the list of words added to the dictionary.
carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe, dwarf, elf, goblin, abbey, aisle, altar, bishop and 137 more...
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billy shakespeare's guide to good living
hurlyburly, nave, direful, whence, sooth, dwindle, tempest-tost, withal, selfsame, wrack, unfix, recompense and 142 more...
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junestag's Words
postmodernism, cat, fish, rabbit, dell, coffee, elearning, mazda, php, mysql, flash, blogger and 755 more...
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Mathaphors √
Concepts o' dem numblurs; polysemy mathematicalia.
integer, factor, ∮, geometric, exponential, equation, aboutequals, variable, obtuse, triangle, angle, circle and 92 more...
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By Hook or By Crook
From the book by David Crystal
cleek, cleeky, slew, lay-by, daylights, blurb, frequentness, beedom, cob, sociable, calash, bracteate and 28 more...
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tl6868's Words
peppy, ascertain, abbreviation, hyphen, prolific, dopey, sleepy, iron, ironic, rony, irony, excommunicate and 49 more...
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These should be used more often
Beautiful words that I rarely see outside the dictionary
wanderlust, collywobbles, abattoir, abnegate, aborning, abrade, abrosia, abstruse, abulia, abutment, acatalectic, acaudate and 29 more...
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In the dark
quiz: one word will change this list.
out, hole, power, eye, and decker, berry, humour, heads, people, sabbath, cat, jack and 39 more...


-By Hook or By Crook by David Crystal, p 93
Dec 15, 2008