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extern

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extern¹

  • /ˈɛkˌstɜː(ɹ)n/

Where it comes from

From Middle French externe or its etymon Latin externus.

noun externs

  1. A person affiliated with an institution in a lesser capacity, for example, as a non-resident or as a part-time affiliate.
  2. A day-scholar.
  3. Outward form or part; exterior.

adjective

  1. obsolete, rare External; outward; not inherent Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty, / But seeming so, for my particular end, / For when my outward action doth demonstrate / The native act and figure of my heart / In complement extern, 'tis not long after / But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve / For daws to peck at.

extern²

  • /ˈɛkˌstɜː(ɹ)n/

Where it comes from

Short for external; used as a keyword in these programming languages.

noun externs

  1. In the C and C++ programming languages, a variable that can be separately declared in many places, all of them referring to the same variable. Finally, get rid of the two function declarations and two externs that we added at the top of TEFIL.CPP so that we could support file_open().

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MLA

"extern." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/extern. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

extern. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/extern

Chicago

"extern." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/extern.

BibTeX
@misc{extern_2026,
  title = {extern},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/extern},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}