title

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An identifying name given to a book, play, film, musical composition, or other work.
2. n. A general or descriptive heading, as of a book chapter.
3. n. Written material to be read by viewers that is included in a film or television show, typically presenting credits, narration, or dialogue. Often used in the plural.
4. n. A written piece of translated dialogue superimposed at the bottom of the frame during a film; a subtitle.
5. n. Law A heading that names a document, statute, or proceeding.
6. n. A division of a law book, declaration, or bill, generally larger than a section or article.
7. n. A written work that is published or about to be published: the titles in a press's fall catalog.
8. n. Law The coincidence of all the elements that constitute the fullest legal right to control and dispose of property or a claim.
9. n. Law The aggregate evidence that gives rise to a legal right of possession or control.
10. n. Law The instrument, such as a deed, that constitutes this evidence.
11. n. Something that provides a basis for or justifies a claim.
12. n. A legitimate or alleged right. See Synonyms at claim.
13. n. A formal appellation attached to the name of a person or family by virtue of office, rank, hereditary privilege, noble birth, or attainment or used as a mark of respect.
14. n. A descriptive name; an epithet.
15. n. Sports A championship.
16. n. Ecclesiastical A source of income or area of work required of a candidate for ordination in the Church of England.
17. n. Ecclesiastical A Roman Catholic church in or near Rome having a cardinal for its nominal head.
18. v. To give a title to; entitle.
19. v. To call by a name; style.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An inscription placed on or over something to distinguish or specialize it; an affixed individualizing term or phrase.
2. n. A prefixed designating word, phrase, or combination of phrases; an initial written or printed designation; the distinguishing name attached to a written production of any kind: as, the title of a book, a chapter or section of a book, etc.; the title of a poem. The title of a book in the fullest sense includes all the matter in the title-page preceding the author's name or whatever stands in place of it. It may be either a single word or a short phrase, or be divided into a leading and a subordinate title connected by or; or it may be extended by way of description to the larger part of a closely printed page, according to a practice formerly very common. The title by which a book is quoted, however, is nearly always the shortest form that will serve to designate it distinctively. For bibliographical purposes, especially in the cases of old, rare, and curious books, the entire title-page, word for word and point for point, is regarded as the title, and when copied the actual typography is often indicated, as by a vertical bar after each word which ends a line, etc.
3. n. Same as title-page, in some technical or occasional uses.
4. n. In bookbinding, the panel on the back of which the name of the book is imprinted.
5. n. A descriptive caption or heading to a document; the formula by which a legal instrument of any kind is headed: as, the title of an act of Congress or of Parliament; the title of a deed, a writ, or an affidavit.
6. n. In some statutes, law-books, and the like, a division or subdivision of the subject, usually a larger division than article or section.
7. n. A characterizing term of address; a descriptive name or epithet.
8. n. Specifically, a distinguishing appellation belonging to a person by right of rank or endowment, or assigned to him as a mark of respect or courtesy. ; ; ; ; . Titles in this sense may be classified as— titles of office, whether hereditary or limited to chosen incumbents, as emperor or empress, king or queen, president, judge, mayor, bishop or archbishop, rector, deacon, general, admiral, captain, etc.
9. n. Titular or aristocratic rank; titled nobility or dignity.
10. n. A grade or degree of fineness; especially, the number of carats by which the fineness of gold is expressed.
11. n. A claim; a right; a designated ground of claim; a conferred or acquired warrant; an attributed privilege or franchise.
12. n. An inherent or established right; a fixed franchise; a just or recognized claim.
13. n. In law: Ownership: as, the title was not in the husband, but in his wife; her title was subject to encumbrance.
14. n. The channel through which an owner has acquired his right; the collection of facts from which, by the operation of law, his right arises: as, an abstract of title sets forth the chain of instruments, etc., by which the owner became owner.
15. n. Absolute ownership; the unencumbered fee. In a contract to convey title or to warrant the title, the word is usually understood in this sense, in which it includes the right of property, the right of possession, and actual possession.
16. n. The instrument which is evidence of a right; a title-deed. Title is more appropriately used of real property; ownership of personal, but also to some extent of real property. Among the older commentators on Roman law it was usual to call title (titulus) the contract or other legal act which was the remote cause of a person's acquiring property (for example, a contract of sale), while the immediate cause (for example, delivery) was called modus, In order to have ownership there had to be a perfect titulus and modus. This doctrine is alien to the Roman jurists, and is now universally repudiated.
17. n. Hence, a source or evidence of any right or privilege; that which establishes a claim or an attribution: as, Gray's “Elegy” is his chief title to fame; his discharge is his title of exemption.
18. n. Eccles.: Originally, a district in the city of Rome with taxable revenue; hence, a district in that city attached to a parish church; a Roman parish church, as distinguished from a basilica or an oratory. The clergy belonging to these churches received the epithet “cardinal,” whence the title cardinal.
19. n. A fixed sphere of work and source of income, required as a condition of ordination. Since the Council of Chalcedon, a. d. 451, it has always been the rule to refuse to admit to ordination any one not appointed to officiate in a particular church. Since the eleventh century a title in the present sense has been expressly required. The term has gradually changed its connotation from the idea of locality to that of assured support and of a warrant for orders. The Roman Catholic Church requires as title for orders nomination to a benefice sufficient for maintenance, sufficient private income, a guarantee of support from some person or persons, or monastic poverty as entitling to maintenance by the order. In the Church of England a cure of souls, chaplaincy, fellowship, or the like is required, or residence as master of arts with sufficient private means. In the American Episcopal Church engagement with some church, parish, or congregation, with some diocesan or recognized general missionary society, as instructor in some incorporated institution, or as chaplain in the national army or navy is requisite for admission to priest's orders.
20. n. Same as tittle.
21. n. Synonyms Designation, etc. See name.
22. To call by a title, or by the title of; entitle; name.
23. To give a right to be entitled; bestow or confer the title or designation of.

Wiktionary

1. n. A prefix (honorific) or suffix (post-nominal) added to a person's name to signify either veneration, official position or a professional or academic qualification. See also Category:Titles
2. n. law Legal right to ownership of a property; a deed or other certificate proving this.
3. n. The name of a book, film, musical piece, painting, or other work of art.
4. n. A publication.
5. n. A written title, credit, or caption shown with a film, video, or performance (usually titles pl).
6. n. The subject of a writing; a short phrase that summarizes the entire topic.
7. n. A division of an act of Congress or Parliament.
8. v. transitive To assign a title to; to entitle.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. An inscription put over or upon anything as a name by which it is known.
2. n. The inscription in the beginning of a book, usually containing the subject of the work, the author's and publisher's names, the date, etc.
3. n. (Bookbindng) The panel for the name, between the bands of the back of a book.
4. n. A section or division of a subject, as of a law, a book, specif. (Roman & Canon Laws), a chapter or division of a law book.
5. n. An appellation of dignity, distinction, or preëminence (hereditary or acquired), given to persons, as duke marquis, honorable, esquire, etc.
6. n. A name; an appellation; a designation.
7. n. That which constitutes a just cause of exclusive possession; that which is the foundation of ownership of property, real or personal; a right.
8. n. The instrument which is evidence of a right.
9. n. (Canon Law) That by which a beneficiary holds a benefice.
10. n. (Anc. Church Records) A church to which a priest was ordained, and where he was to reside.
11. v. To call by a title; to name; to entitle.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the status of being a champion
2. v. give a title to
3. n. an identifying appellation signifying status or function: e.g. `Mr.' or `General'
4. n. a heading that names a statute or legislative bill; may give a brief summary of the matters it deals with
5. n. a legal document signed and sealed and delivered to effect a transfer of property and to show the legal right to possess it
6. n. (usually plural) written material introduced into a movie or TV show to give credits or represent dialogue or explain an action
7. n. an informal right to something
8. v. designate by an identifying term
9. n. an appellation signifying nobility
10. n. a general or descriptive heading for a section of a written work
11. n. an established or recognized right
12. n. the name of a work of art or literary composition etc.