extern

[ ek-sturn; for 3 also ik-sturn ]

noun
  1. a person connected with an institution but not residing in it, as a doctor or medical student at a hospital.

  2. a nun of a strictly enclosed order, as the Carmelites, who resides inside the convent but outside its enclosure and who chiefly goes on outside errands.

adjective
  1. Archaic. external; outer.

Origin of extern

1
1525–35; <Latin externus, derivative of exter, exterus.See exterior

Words Nearby extern

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use extern in a sentence

  • That a professed nun should be expected to feel personal and unspiritual interest in an extern!

    A Forgotten Hero | Emily Sarah Holt
  • Carin extern vald carinat cum sulco laterali ad utrumque latus.

  • I own this is a damper to sanguine and florid temperaments, who abound in these practical demonstrations and 'compliments extern.'

    Table-Talk | William Hazlitt
  • A further proof perhaps of Puck's rural and extern character is the following rather trifling circumstance.

    The Fairy Mythology | Thomas Keightley
  • Ratio: Intentio adorandi objectum materiale, non est de essenti extern adorationis, ut patet in deosculatione religios.

    Letters of Samuel Rutherford | Samuel Rutherford

British Dictionary definitions for extern

extern

externe

/ (ˈɛkstɜːn, ɪkˈstɜːn) /


noun
  1. US a person, such as a physician at a hospital, who has an official connection with an institution but does not reside in it

Origin of extern

1
C16: from Latin externus external

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012