taxis

 
Pronunciation: /ˈtaksɪs/

noun (plural taxes /ˈtaksiːz/)

  • 1 [mass noun] Surgery the restoration of displaced bones or organs by manual pressure alone.
  • 2 Biology a motion or orientation of a cell, organism, or part in response to an external stimulus. Compare with kinesis.
  • 3 [mass noun] Linguistics the systematic arrangement of linguistic units (phonemes, morphemes, words, phrases, or clauses) in linear sequence.

Origin:

mid 18th century (in taxis (sense 1)): from Greek, literally 'arrangement', from tassein 'arrange'. taxis (sense 2) dates from the late 19th century