apposition
/apəˈzɪʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
1chiefly technical The positioning of things side by side or close together.These connections consisted of close appositions between nonspecialized areas of the plasma membranes of the 2 cells....
- The first seven bead appositions led to spikes in the fiber position that represent adhesive events of varying duration.
- Hence the plug is a specialized cytoplasmic structure, unlike desmosomes, gap junctions, or septate junctions, which are formed from membrane appositions.
2 Grammar A relationship between two or more words or phrases in which the two units are grammatically parallel and have the same referent (e.g. my friend Sue; the first US president, George Washington).Long sentences with subclauses loosely strung together and lots of words in apposition likewise suggest that meaning can be continually modified rather than structured into discrete differential units....
- By means of the universal ‘I,’ he brings the concepts of performance and political involvement into apposition with the categories of immigrant, exile, and criminal.
- You find, if you change a direction, you get an opposition and an apposition, which creates an irony, which creates a metaphor.
Origin
Late Middle English: from late Latin appositio(n-), from apponere 'to apply' (see apposite).
- Bernstein, Carl
- Bernstein, Leonard
- be rolling in it (or in money)
- Berra, Yogi
- berried
- berry
- Berry, Chuck
- Berryman, John
- bersagliere
- berseem clover
- berserk
- berserker
- berth
- bertha
- berthing
- Bertillon, Alphonse
- Bertolucci, Bernardo
- be running on empty
- be run off one's feet
- be rushed (or run) off one's feet
- Berwickshire
- Berwick-upon-Tweed
- Berwyn
- beryl
- berylliosis