Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The setting or marking of boundaries or limits.
  • noun A separation; a distinction.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of marking off limits or boundaries; determination by survey of the line of separation between adjoining lands or territories; delimitation: as, the demarcation of the frontiers.
  • noun In general, the act of determining the relative limits or extent of anything; separation; discrimination.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of marking, or of ascertaining and setting a limit; separation; distinction.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act of marking off a boundary or setting a limit, notably by belligerents signing a treaty or ceasefire.
  • noun A limit thus fixed, in full demarcation line.
  • noun Any strictly defined separation

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a conceptual separation or distinction
  • noun the boundary of a specific area

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Spanish demarcación, from demarcar, to mark boundaries : de-, off (from Latin dē-; see de–) + marcar, to mark (from Italian marcare, from Old Italian, of Germanic origin; see merg- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First recorded c.1752, from Spanish linea de demarcacion and/or Portuguese linha de demarcação, the demarcation line laid down by the Pope on May 4, 1493, dividing the New World between Spain and Portugal on a line 100 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. Both derive from demarcar, from de- + marcar ("to mark"), from Italian marcare, from the Germanic root of march.

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Examples

  • However, he said, that now that the rainy season has ended, physical border demarcation is possible even in the disputed areas.

    Rising Tension And Frustration As Sudan Referendum Nears 2010

  • Hikmat noted that the issue of border demarcation is highly politicized because the National Congress Party (NCP) is making it a condition for the referendum to proceed.

    Rising Tension And Frustration As Sudan Referendum Nears 2010

  • I am not suggesting that demarcation is "useless" rhetoric – quite the opposite actually.

    Demarcation as Politics 2006

  • All I can say, as you keep talking of "[my] two criteria for demarcation", is that however much I may feel flattered that you attribute them to me, someone has already stated them long before me: they are nothing but the criteria that Karl Raimund Popper himself set at the beginning of his "The Logic of Scientific Discovery".

    Demarcation, Demarcation, …. 2006

  • It may be that demarcation is more of a protectionist strategy than a progressive one.

    Demarcation, Demarcation, …. 2006

  • The question I am posing within the context of this thread, of demarcation, is to weed out the views of people such as Mr. Matzke as to which of the above two issues is the real reason why ID is not respected as science.

    Demarcation as Politics 2006

  • Interesting how that demarcation is slipped in there and w/o further comment by the correspondents, even though it leapt right off the page and smacked me right between the eyes.

    Demarcation, Demarcation, …. 2006

  • If demarcation is a mute issue, perhaps educational institutions would be well served to adopt a broader and more vital approach to the inquiry into the workings of our cosmos.

    Demarcation, Credentials, and Science Education 2005

  • If demarcation is a mute issue, perhaps educational institutions would be well served to adopt a broader and more vital approach to the inquiry into the workings of our cosmos.

    Demarcation, Credentials, and Science Education 2005

  • Sir Henry Mortimer Durand had decreed so in 1893 with an imperious gesture, and his arbitrary demarcation is still known as the Durand Line.

    The Perils of Partition 2003

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