proper
IPA: prˈɑpɝ
noun
- (obsolete) Something set apart for a special use.
- (Christianity) A part of the Christian liturgy that varies according to the date.
- A surname.
adjective
- Suitable.
- Suited or acceptable to the purpose or circumstances; fit, suitable.
- Following the established standards of behavior or manners; correct or decorous.
- Possessed, related.
- (grammar) Used to designate a particular person, place, or thing. Proper nouns are usually written with an initial capital letter.
- Pertaining exclusively to a specific thing or person; particular.
- (usually postpositive) In the strict sense; within the strict definition or core (of a specified place, taxonomic order, idea, etc).
- Belonging to oneself or itself; own.
- (heraldry) Portrayed in natural or usual coloration, as opposed to conventional tinctures.
- (mathematics) Being strictly part of some other thing (not necessarily explicitly mentioned, but of definitional importance), and not being the thing itself.
- (mathematics, physics) Eigen-; designating a function or value which is an eigenfunction or eigenvalue.
- Accurate, strictly applied.
- Excellent, of high quality; such as the specific person or thing should ideally be. (Now often merged with later senses.)
- (now regional) Attractive, elegant.
- (often postpositive) In the very strictest sense of the word.
- (now colloquial) Utter, complete.
adverb
- (UK, colloquial) properly; thoroughly; completely.
- (nonstandard, colloquial) properly.
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Examples of "proper" in Sentences
- When an Englishman used the word proper, he could only mean one thing—another Englishman.
- Boswell's conversation with the King about the title proper to be given to the Young Pretender.
- _Boswell's conversation with the King about the title proper to be given to the Young Pretender.
- U.S. officials said Wednesday they will continue to push for what they describe as proper reform.
- But he is concerned with news that bin Laden's body was buried at sea, without what he called a proper Muslim burial.
- No Tractarians proper are introduced: and this is noted in the advertisement: "No _proper_ representative is intended in this tale, of the religious opinions, which had lately so much influence in the University of Oxford."
- As in the case of seeds, he used the term proper to bodies, saying, "it is not quickened, except it die:" so in the case of bodies, the expression belonging to seeds, saying, "it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption."
- For example, it is satisfied by a model in which a whole can be decomposed into several proper parts all of which overlap one another (Figure 2, right), and it may be argued that such models do not do justice to the meaning of ˜proper part™: after all, the idea is that the removal of a proper part should leave a remainder, but it is by no means clear what would be left of x once z (along with its parts) is removed.
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