extrinsic

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And all the time its secret transforming power is indirectly moulding body and mind it is directly active in the more open task of ministering to my myriad wants and from hour to hour sustaining life itself To understand the sustaining influence of Environment in the animal world, one has only to recall what the biologist terms the extrinsic or subsidiary conditions of vitality.

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Not forming an essential or inherent part of a thing; extraneous.
  2. adjective Originating from the outside; external.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (8)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Although many studies have assumed that motor cortex encodes direction in an extrinsic, Cartesian (CA) coordinate system, other studies have provided evidence for encoding in intermediate coordinate systems such as a shoulder-centered (SC) or in a purely intrinsic, joint-angle-based (JA) coordinate frame. —  CiteULike: Everyone's library
  • This suggests that a cell-extrinsic homeostatic mechanism regulates the size of the T reg compartment in the periphery of naïve wild-type mice. —  PLoS Biology: New Articles
  • Nevertheless, beware: Sun exposure is the most important factor of "extrinsic" aging. —  Find Free Articles - ArticlesBase
  • Dan, I totally disagree with you that humans can only ever have extrinsic or instrumental value. —  Dangerous Intersection
  • Inadequate sinus node pacing  Intrinsic / extrinsic (eg meds) conduction disturbances Diagnosed by ECG or Holter Monitor   Sinus pause (> 3 s strongly suggestive of SSS) —  Recently Uploaded Slideshows
 

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin extrīnsecus, from outside : exter, outside; see exterior + -im, adv. suff. + secus, alongside; see sekw-1 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly extrinsick, extrinsique; properly *extrinsec (the termination being erroneously conformed to that of adjectives in -ic) = French extrinsèque = Provencal extrinsec = Spanish extrínseco = Portuguese extrinseco = Italian estrinseco, from Latin extrinsecus, adjective, outer, from extrinsecus, adverb, from without, without, on the outside, from extrim, an assumed adverbial form of exter, outer, outward, + secus, preposition, by, beside, seen also in intrinsecus, on the inside (later English intrinsic, q. v.), altrinsecus, on the other side, utrinsecus, on both sides, circumsecus, on all sides.
 

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/ɛksˈtrɪnsɪk/
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