type
Pronunciation: /tʌɪp/
noun
- 1a category of people or things having common characteristics: this type of heather grows better in a drier habitat blood types
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- (one's type) informal the sort of person one likes or finds attractive: she’s not really my type
- 2a person or thing exemplifying the ideal or defining characteristics of something: she characterized his witty sayings as the type of modern wisdom
- an object, conception, or work of art serving as a model for subsequent artists.
- a symbol of someone or something: the dolphin is a conventional type of Christ
- Theology a person or event in the Old Testament taken as a foreshadowing of someone or something in the New Testament.
- Botany & Zoology an organism or taxon chosen as having the essential characteristics of its group.
- short for type specimen
- 3
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- such pieces collectively.
- 5 Linguistics an abstract category or class of linguistic item or unit, as distinct from actual occurrences in speech or writing. Contrasted with token
verb
Origin:
late 15th century (in the sense 'symbol, emblem'): from French, or from Latin typus, from Greek tupos 'impression, figure, type', from tuptein 'to strike'. The use in printing dates from the early 18th century; the general sense 'category with common characteristics' arose in the mid 19th century