Lexic.us

Definition of Determinant

1. Noun. A determining or causal element or factor. "Education is an important determinant of one's outlook on life"

2. Adjective. Having the power or quality of deciding. "The determinative (or determinant) battle"

3. Noun. The site on the surface of an antigen molecule to which an antibody attaches itself.

4. Noun. A square matrix used to solve simultaneous equations.

Definition of Determinant

1. a. Serving to determine or limit; determinative.

2. n. That which serves to determine; that which causes determination.

Definition of Determinant

1. Noun. A determining factor; an element that determines the nature of something ¹

2. Noun. (linear algebra) The unique scalar function over square matrices which is distributive over matrix multiplication, multilinear in the rows and columns, and takes the value of 1 for the unit matrix. Abbreviation: det ¹

3. Noun. (biology) A substance that causes a cell to adopt a particular fate. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Determinant

1. [n -S]

Medical Definition of Determinant

1. 1. That which serves to determine; that which causes determination. 2. The sum of a series of products of several numbers, these products being formed according to certain specified laws; thus, the determinant of the nine numbers. Is a b' c'' a b'' c' + a' b'' c] a' b c'' + a'' b' c. The determinant is written by placing the numbers from which it is formed in a square between two vertical lines. The theory of determinants forms a very important branch of modern mathematics. 3. A mark or attribute, attached to the subject or predicate, narrowing the extent of both, but rendering them more definite and precise. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Determinant

deteriorations deteriorative deteriority determent determents determin'd determinabilities determinability determinable determinableness

determinables determinably determinacies determinacy determinans determinant (current term) determinant group determinantal determinants determinate

determinate cleavage determinated determinately determinateness determinates determination determinations determinative determinatively determinativeness

Literary usage of Determinant

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Standard Work of Reference in Art, Literature (1907)
"Decomposition of a determinant into complementary determinants. ... then, if we consider how these elements enter into the determinant, it is at once seen ..."

2. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and (1910)
"Now by the expansion theorem the determinant becomes We thus obtain for the ... We may say that, in the resulting determinant, the element in the ilk row ..."

3. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General by Thomas Spencer Baynes (1888)
"To indicate the method of proof, observe that the determinant on the left-hand side, qua linear function of its columns, may be broken ..."

4. Lessons Introductory to the Modern Higher Algebra by George Salmon (1885)
"Further, since it was shewn in the same example that when a determinant vanishes, the constituents of the reciprocal determinant in the second row are ..."

Other Resources: