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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

coterminous en · ADJ

Pronunciation

  • /kəˈtɝ.mɪ.nəs/ (US)
  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /kəˈtəː.mɪ.nəs/ (UK)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Proto-Indo-European *terh₂-? Proto-Indo-European *ter-? Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Indo-European *térmn̥ Proto-Italic *termn̥ Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Italic *-nos Proto-Italic *term(e)nos Latin terminus Latin conterminusder. English coterminous From Latin conterminus, from con- (“with”) + terminus (“border, end”), equivalent to co- + terminous. The spelling with co- instead of con- is probably influenced by the related prefix co-.

Meanings

  1. (not-comparable) Meeting end to end or at the ends.
  2. (not-comparable) Having matching boundaries; or, adjoining and sharing a boundary.
    • To get a building warrant he had to show the plans to "coterminous proprietors", neighbours with whom his property shared a boundary.
    • It has been the close vicinity of slave-owners to each other, the fact that their lands have been coterminous, that theirs was especially a cotton district, which has tempted them to secession. 1862, Anthony Trollope, North America. […], volume II, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC:
    • The village of Kiryas Joel, coterminous with the town of Palm Tree, is a well-known Hasidic Orthodox Jewish community. 2025 June 6, Lana Bellamy, “Orthodox communities see surge in population”, in Times Union, archived from the original on 03 Jul 2025:
    • These eighty-two parishes were roughly coterminous with the existing seigneuries, but not always so. 1915, William Bennett Munro et al., The Seigneurs of Old Canada (Chronicles of Canada), volume 5:
    • New York's borough of Brooklyn and Kings County are coterminous.
  3. (broadly, not-comparable) Having the same scope, range of meaning, or extent in time.
    • From this it follows at once that language and thought are not strictly coterminous. 1921, Edward Sapir, Language: An introduction to the study of speech:
    • But it is purely fantastic unless we bear in mind that the governing class has been continually compelled to enlarge itself, and that its tendency is reluctantly to go on doing so until in the end it will be coterminous with the "governed class." 1919, Robert Lynd, Old and New Masters:
    • The elision of moral and moralising arguments is common, but the two aren't coterminous. 2022, China Miéville, chapter 4, in A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto, →OCLC:
  4. (not-comparable) Said of linked or related property leases that expire together.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
conterminous alternative lexicographic

Deriveds

coterminosity · noncoterminous · coterminousness · coterminously

Relateds

coextensive · contiguous

Translations (12)

pl ościenny (meeting end-to-end) · bg съседен (adjoining) · is sem liggur innan einna og sömu landamæra (adjoining) · ru смежные (adjoining) · is með sameiginleg landamæri (adjoining) · is samlægur (having the same scope, range, or extent) · is með sameiginleg landamæri (having the same scope, range, or extent) · fr limitrophe (adjoining) · is sem liggur innan einna og sömu landamæra (having the same scope, range, or extent) · cs sousední (adjoining) · is samlægur (adjoining) · is samlægur (of leases: linked or related)