extern

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛkˌstɜː(ɹ)n/

From Middle French externe or its etymon Latin externus.

extern (plural externs)

1. A person affiliated with an institution in a lesser capacity, for example, as a non-resident or as a part-time affiliate.
   1. A day-scholar.
2. Outward form or part; exterior.

extern

1. (obsolete, rare) External; outward; not inherent
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty, / But seeming so, for my particular end, / For when my outward action doth demonstrate / The native act and figure of my heart / In complement extern, 'tis not long after / But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve / For daws to peck at.

   • 1663, Edward Waterhous[e], chapter XIV, in Fortescutus Illustratus; or A Commentary on that Nervous Treatise De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, Written by Sir John Fortescue Knight, […], London: […] Tho[mas] Roycroft for Thomas Dicas […], →OCLC, page 214:

     For if the ſoul of man vvere emancipated by virtue, it vvould not need any regulation or monition, beſides that of its invvard Tribunal; vvhich becauſe ſin does uſurp upon, has ſome relief from thoſe extern adjuments.

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “extern”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
• William Shakespeare (1603) The Tragedy of Othello the Moor of Venice, Penguin Books, published 2001

Short for external; used as a keyword in these programming languages.

extern (plural externs)

1. (programming) In the C and C++ programming languages, a variable that can be separately declared in many places, all of them referring to the same variable.
   • 1995, Martin L. Rinehart, Learn C++ Today!, page 552:

     Finally, get rid of the two function declarations and two externs that we added at the top of TEFIL.CPP so that we could support file_open().

   • 2018, Brian Beuken, The Fundamentals of C/C++ Game Programming:

     This is probably the big thing with C++, the more you can avoid global concepts and nasty externs the better, an object/class should be totally self-contained.

Borrowed from Latin externus.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [əksˈtɛrn]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [eksˈtɛɾn]

extern (feminine externa, masculine plural externs, feminine plural externes)

1. external

   Antonym: intern

2. inessential

   Synonym: inessencial

   Antonyms: intern, essencial

3. (education) off-campus (pertaining to a student who is at a school only during classes)

   Antonym: intern

4. (geology) Pertaining to foreland, the zone where material eroded from a mountain chain is deposited

• (external): aliè (“external to a social group”)

• externament

• avantpaís (“foreland”)

extern m (plural externs, feminine externa, feminine plural externes)

1. (education) off-campus student

   Antonym: intern

• “extern”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “extern”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “extern” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “extern” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Borrowed from French externe, from Latin externus.

• IPA^(key): /ɛksˈtɛrn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ex‧tern
• Rhymes: -ɛrn

extern (not comparable)

1. external

   Synonym: uitwendig

2. exterior

From Latin externus.

• IPA^(key): /ɛksˈtɛʁn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛʁn
• Hyphenation: ex‧tern

extern (strong nominative masculine singular externer, not comparable)

1. external

• intern

• “extern” in Duden online
• “extern” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Borrowed from French externe, from Latin externus.

• IPA^(key): [eksˈtern]

extern m or n (feminine singular externă, masculine plural externi, feminine and neuter plural externe)

1. external

   Antonym: intern

• “extern”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025

extern

1. external