Coefficient
adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A constant by which an algebraic term is multiplied.
- 2 a constant number that serves as a measure of some property or characteristic wordnet
- 3 An entry of a matrix.
"Notice that many of the terms of the matrices [Sᵉ] (e = 1, 2, 3) vanish. We call the non-vanishing coefficients of the matrix [Sᵉ] the stiffness coefficients of element e and we denote them by Kᵣₛᵉ."
- 4 A number, value, or item that serves as a measure of some property or characteristic.
"Near-synonym: constant"
- 1 Cooperating.
"And so our own idea of Christ compels us to admit that two factors, the one natural, the other supernatural, were coefficient in his entrance into human life;"
Example
More examples"We assessed reliability using the Cronbach's alpha coefficient and validity using the correlation analysis."
Etymology
From French coefficient. Coined by French mathematician François Viète. Or influenced by (New) Latin coefficient-, which is the stem of coefficiens, which is a substantivation of the present active participle of coefficio, which comes from co- and efficio.
Related phrases
More for "coefficient"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.