derivation

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act or process of deriving.
2. n. The state or fact of being derived; originating: a custom of recent derivation.
3. n. Something derived; a derivative.
4. n. The form or source from which something is derived; an origin.
5. n. The historical origin and development of a word; an etymology.
6. n. Linguistics The process by which words are formed from existing words or bases by adding affixes, as singer from sing or undo from do, by changing the shape of the word or base, as song from sing, or by adding an affix and changing the pronunciation of the word or base, as electricity from electric.
7. n. Linguistics A linguistic description of the process of word formation.
8. n. Linguistics In generative linguistics, the process by which a surface structure is generated from a deep structure.
9. n. Linguistics A formal representation or description of the series of ordered linguistic rules and operations that generate a surface structure from a deep structure.
10. n. Logic & Mathematics A logical or mathematical process indicating through a sequence of statements that a result such as a theorem or a formula necessarily follows from the initial assumptions.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A drawing from or turning aside, as a stream of water or other fluid from a natural course or channel; a stream so diverted.
2. n. Specifically. In medicine, revulsion, or the drawing away of the fluids of an inflamed part, by applying blisters, etc., over it or at a distance from it.
3. n. The act or fact of deriving, drawing, or receiving from a source: as, the derivation of being; the derivation of an estate from ancestors, or of profits from capital.
4. n. In philology, the drawing or tracing of a word in its development or formation from its more original root or stem; a statement of the origin or formative history of a word. See etymology.
5. n. In mathematics: The operation of finding the derivative, or differential coefficient; differentiation.
6. n. The operation of passing from any point on a cubic curve to that point at which the tangent at the first point cuts the curve.
7. n. The operation of passing from any function to any related function which may in the context be termed its derivative. The word derivation, in its first mathematical sense, was invented by Lagrange, who thought it possible to develop the calculus without the use of infinitesimals.
8. n. In biology, descent with modification of an organism from antecedent organisms; evolution: as, the derivation of man; the doctrine of derivation—that is, the derivative theory (which see, under derivative).
9. n. In gunnery, the peculiar constant deviation of an elongated projectile from a rifled gun, due to its angular rotation about its longer axis and to the resistance of the air. Sometimes called drift.
10. n. The thing derived or deduced; a derivative; a deduction.

Wiktionary

1. n. A leading or drawing off of water from a stream or source.
2. n. The act of receiving anything from a source; the act of procuring an effect from a cause, means, or condition, as profits from capital, conclusions or opinions from evidence.
3. n. The act of tracing origin or descent, as in grammar or genealogy; as, the derivation of a word from an Indo-European root.
4. n. The state or method of being derived; the relation of origin when established or asserted.
5. n. That from which a thing is derived.
6. n. That which is derived; a derivative; a deduction.
7. n. mathematics The operation of deducing one function from another according to some fixed law, called the law of derivation, as the of differentiation or of integration.
8. n. medicine A drawing of humors or fluids from one part of the body to another, to relieve or lessen a morbid process.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete A leading or drawing off of water from a stream or source.
2. n. The act of receiving anything from a source; the act of procuring an effect from a cause, means, or condition, as profits from capital, conclusions or opinions from evidence.
3. n. The act of tracing origin or descent, as in grammar or genealogy.
4. n. The state or method of being derived; the relation of origin when established or asserted.
5. n. That from which a thing is derived.
6. n. That which is derived; a derivative; a deduction.
7. n. (Math.) The operation of deducing one function from another according to some fixed law, called the law of derivation, as the operation of differentiation or of integration.
8. n. (Med.) A drawing of humors or fluids from one part of the body to another, to relieve or lessen a morbid process.
9. n. The formation of a word from its more original or radical elements; also, a statement of the origin and history of a word.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the source or origin from which something derives (i.e. comes or issues)
2. n. inherited properties shared with others of your bloodline
3. n. (historical linguistics) an explanation of the historical origins of a word or phrase
4. n. (descriptive linguistics) the process whereby new words are formed from existing words or bases by affixation
5. n. drawing off water from its main channel as for irrigation
6. n. a line of reasoning that shows how a conclusion follows logically from accepted propositions
7. n. drawing of fluid or inflammation away from a diseased part of the body
8. n. the act of deriving something or obtaining something from a source or origin