FromMiddle Frenchramification, or its source,Medieval Latinrāmificātiō.[1]
ramification (countable anduncountable,pluralramifications)
- (botany, anatomy, also figurative) Abranching-out, the act or result of developingbranches; specifically the divergence of thestem and limbs of a plant into smaller ones, or of similar developments inblood vessels,anatomical structures etc.
1829, Lincoln Phelps,Familiar Lectures on Botany, page179:The character of trees may be studied to advantage[…] in winter, when the forms of theramification can be seen in the naked boughs[…]
1856, Neil Arnott, Isaac Hayes,Elements of Physics, pages414–5:From the left chamber orventricle of the strong muscular mass, theheart, a large tube arises, called theaorta; and by a continued division orramification, opens a way for the bright scarlet blood to the very minutest part of the living frame[…]
1904 August,A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter”, inThe Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.:McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905,→OCLC:“You live in a different world to me, Mr. Overton—a sweeter and healthier one. Myramifications stretch out into many sections of society, but never, I am happy to say, into amateur sport, which is the best and soundest thing in England.[…]
1919,Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The God of Tarzan”, inJungle Tales of Tarzan,pages92–93:Quite unexpectedly an idea popped into Tarzan's head. In following out the manyramifications of the dictionary definition ofGod he had come upon the wordcreate—“to cause to come into existence; to form out of nothing.”
- (figurative, often in theplural) Anoffshoot of a decision, fact etc.; aconsequence orimplication, especially one which complicates a situation.
1817 December 31 (indicated as1818), [Walter Scott], chapter X, inRob Roy. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. forArchibald Constable and Co. […]; London:Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown,→OCLC,page272:The treachery of some of the Jacobite agents (Rashleigh among the rest), and the arrest of others, had made George the First's Government acquainted with the extensiveramifications of a conspiracy long prepared, and which at last exploded prematurely[…]
1910 October,Jack London, chapter VII, inBurning Daylight, New York, N.Y.:The Macmillan Company,→OCLC:He stirred up a bigger muss than he had anticipated, and even he was astounded at the wideramifications of the struggle and at the unexpected and incongruous interests that were drawn into it.
2009 July 15, Chris Power, “A brief survey of the short story part 19: Ray Bradbury”, inThe Guardian[2],→ISSN:But most often and memorably his work falls into that territory best summed up as speculative fiction, with a particular emphasis on dystopian futures and the existentialramifications of space exploration.
2022 November 30, Nick Brodrick, “Pride and innovation shine at St Pancras”, inRAIL, number971, page67:The advent of COVID passports, so soon after increased check-in bureaucracy post-Brexit, brought major logisticalramifications to St Pancras International, of a kind unseen at any other major station in Britain.
- (mathematics) An arrangement of branches.
branching process
- Bulgarian:разклоняване n(razklonjavane),разклонение (bg) n(razklonenie)
- Catalan:ramificació (ca) f
- Czech:rozvětvení n
- Dutch:vertakking (nl),uitwaaiering
- Finnish:haarautuminen (fi)
- French:ramification (fr) f
- German:Verästelung f,Verzweigung (de) f,Ramifikation f
- Greek:διακλάδωση (el) f(diakládosi)
- Hungarian:elágazás (hu),szétágazás (hu),leágazás (hu),elágasodás,elágazódás
- Icelandic:kvíslun f,greining f
- Polish:rozgałęzienie (pl) n
- Portuguese:ramificação (pt) f
- Russian:разветвле́ние (ru) n(razvetvlénije),ответвле́ние (ru) n(otvetvlénije)
- Spanish:ramificación f
- Tibetan:ཡལ་འདབ་སྒྲིག་རིམ(yal 'dab sgrig rim),ཡལ་འདབ་རྒྱས་སྟངས(yal 'dab rgyas stangs)
- Turkish:budaklanma,dallanma (tr)
- Ukrainian:розгалу́ження n(rozhalúžennja)
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consequence or development complicating a problem
- “ramification”, inWebster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.:G. & C. Merriam,1913,→OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney,Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “ramification”, inThe Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.:The Century Co.,→OCLC.
Fromramifier +-ification.
ramification f (pluralramifications)
- a (criminal)network,offshoots of an (often clandestine)organization
- ramification,implication
- (botany, anatomy)ramification
ramification f (pluralramifications)
- division intobranches
1570, Jean Canappe,Tables anatomiques du corps humain universel: soit de l'homme, ou de la femme,page24:De laquelle nous donnerons la divarication, cestadireramification, ou division en ses rameaux, quand nous traicterons du foye.- From which [from the vein] we get separating out, that is to say ramification, or division into several branches, when we are talking about the liver.
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, launched 2000.