constraint

English

WOTD – 10 January 2016

Etymology

From Middle English constreynt, constreynte, from Old French constreinte, past participle of constreindre (“to constrain”), from Latin cōnstringō (corresponding to the past participle cōnstrictus).

Pronunciation

Noun

constraint (countable and uncountable, plural constraints)

  1. Something that constrains; a restriction.
    Coordinate term: problem
    An engineer must recognize the difference between a constraint (to work within) and a problem (to be eliminated via resolution).
  2. An irresistible force or compulsion.
    They confessed, but only under severe constraint.
  3. The repression of one's feelings.
    (Can we add an example for this sense?)
  4. (mathematics) A condition that a solution to an optimization problem must satisfy.
  5. (databases) A linkage or other restriction that maintains database integrity.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

Anagrams

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.