text
Definitions
General English
General Science
- noun information consisting of alphanumeric characters
Commerce
Computing
- noun a set of alphanumeric characters that convey information
Electronics
- data in the form of alphanumeric characters, as opposed for instance, to audio or graphics.
- data in the form of words, numbers, or the like, which are intended to convey meaningful information to users, as opposed to for instance, to control codes.
Information & Library Science
- noun the main part of a written document
Media Studies
- noun a style of type that is suitable for printing running text
- noun the main body of a book or other printed material, as distinct from the introduction, index, illustrations and headings
- verb to send a text message to somebody
Origin & History of “text”
Latin texere meant ‘weave’ (this was actually a secondary sense, its original meaning being ‘build’, and it went back ultimately to the Indo-European base *tek- ‘make’, source also of English technical). Its past participle textus was used as a noun meaning ‘woven material’, and hence metaphorically ‘literary composition’. English acquired it via Old French texte. other English words from the same source include context (15th c.), pretext (16th c.), subtle, textile (17th c.), texture (15th c.), tissue, and toilet.
