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in·struc·tion

(ĭn-strŭkshən)

1. The act, practice, or profession of instructing: math instruction.

a. Imparted knowledge: We sought further instruction in a more advanced class.

b. An imparted or acquired item of knowledge: The judge gave the jury an instruction in how the law defines an accomplice.

a. often instructions An authoritative direction to be obeyed; an order: had instructions to be home by midnight.

b. instructions Detailed directions about how to do something: read the instructions for assembly.

4. Computers A sequence of bits that tells a central processing unit to perform a particular operation and can contain data to be used in the operation.

in·struction·al adj.

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

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