English Dictionary

IMPORT

IPA (US): 

 Dictionary entry overview: What does import mean? 

IMPORT (noun)
  The noun IMPORT has 5 senses:

1. commodities (goods or services) bought from a foreign countryplay

2. an imported person brought from a foreign countryplay

3. the message that is intended or expressed or signifiedplay

4. a meaning that is not expressly stated but can be inferredplay

5. having important effects or influenceplay

  Familiarity information: IMPORT used as a noun is common.


IMPORT (verb)
  The verb IMPORT has 3 senses:

1. bring in from abroadplay

2. transfer (electronic data) into a database or documentplay

3. indicate or signifyplay

  Familiarity information: IMPORT used as a verb is uncommon.


 Dictionary entry details 


IMPORT (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

Commodities (goods or services) bought from a foreign country

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

import; importation

Hypernyms ("import" is a kind of...):

commodity; good; trade good (articles of commerce)

Antonym:

export (commodities (goods or services) sold to a foreign country)

Derivation:

import (bring in from abroad)


Sense 2

Meaning:

An imported person brought from a foreign country

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

import; importee

Context example:

they are descendants of indentured importees

Hypernyms ("import" is a kind of...):

alien; foreigner; noncitizen; outlander (a person who comes from a foreign country; someone who does not owe allegiance to your country)

Derivation:

import (bring in from abroad)


Sense 3

Meaning:

The message that is intended or expressed or signified

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

import; meaning; significance; signification

Context example:

the import of his announcement was ambiguous

Hypernyms ("import" is a kind of...):

content; message; subject matter; substance (what a communication that is about something is about)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "import"):

lexical meaning (the meaning of a content word that depends on the nonlinguistic concepts it is used to express)

grammatical meaning (the meaning of a word that depends on its role in a sentence; varies with inflectional form)

symbolisation; symbolization (the use of symbols to convey meaning)

sense; signified (the meaning of a word or expression; the way in which a word or expression or situation can be interpreted)

connotation; intension (what you must know in order to determine the reference of an expression)

referent (something referred to; the object of a reference)

burden; core; effect; essence; gist (the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work)

intent; purport; spirit (the intended meaning of a communication)

lesson; moral (the significance of a story or event)

nicety; nuance; refinement; shade; subtlety (a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude)

overtone ((usually plural) an ulterior implicit meaning or quality)

point (a brief version of the essential meaning of something)

Derivation:

import (indicate or signify)


Sense 4

Meaning:

A meaning that is not expressly stated but can be inferred

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

implication; import; significance

Context example:

the expectation was spread both by word and by implication

Hypernyms ("import" is a kind of...):

meaning; substance (the idea that is intended)

Derivation:

import (indicate or signify)


Sense 5

Meaning:

Having important effects or influence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

consequence; import; moment

Context example:

that result is of no consequence

Hypernyms ("import" is a kind of...):

significance (the quality of being significant)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "import"):

matter ((used with negation) having consequence)

hell to pay (dire consequences)


IMPORT (verb)

 Conjugation: 
Present simple: I / you / we / they import ... he / she / it imports
Past simple: imported  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation
Past participle: imported  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation
-ing form: importing  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation


Sense 1

Meaning:

Bring in from abroad

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "import" is one way to...):

merchandise; trade (engage in the trade of)

Domain category:

commerce; commercialism; mercantilism (transactions (sales and purchases) having the objective of supplying commodities (goods and services))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "import"):

smuggle (import or export without paying customs duties)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Sentence example:

Sam and Sue import the movie

Antonym:

export (sell or transfer abroad)

Derivation:

import (commodities (goods or services) bought from a foreign country)

import (an imported person brought from a foreign country)

importation (the commercial activity of buying and bringing in goods from a foreign country)

importation (commodities (goods or services) bought from a foreign country)

importee (an imported person brought from a foreign country)

importer (someone whose business involves importing goods from outside (especially from a foreign country))

importing (the commercial activity of buying and bringing in goods from a foreign country)


Sense 2

Meaning:

Transfer (electronic data) into a database or document

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "import" is one way to...):

transfer (move from one place to another)

Domain category:

computer science; computing (the branch of engineering science that studies (with the aid of computers) computable processes and structures)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Antonym:

export (transfer (electronic data) out of a database or document in a format that can be used by other programs)


Sense 3

Meaning:

Indicate or signify

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

import; spell

Context example:

I'm afraid this spells trouble!

Hypernyms (to "import" is one way to...):

intend; mean (mean or intend to express or convey)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

import (a meaning that is not expressly stated but can be inferred)

import (the message that is intended or expressed or signified)


 Context examples 


She heard the words he uttered and understood their literal import, but she was not with him in his despair and his delight.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The word imports what the Latins call nanunculus, the Italians homunceletino, and the English mannikin.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

This allele, which encodes 60 kDa heat shock protein, mitochondrial, is involved in both import and folding of mitochondrial proteins.

(HSPD1 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

And yet there were indications there, had they not been overlaid by other details which concealed their true import.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When the unexpected does happen, however, and when it is of sufficiently grave import, the unfit perish.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

One of the oldest original early American pig strains, the Hampshire pig originated from the Old English breed and was imported to North American in the mid-1800s.

(Hampshire Pig, NCI Thesaurus)

Mouse Meis1 regulates Pbx1 protein activity by promoting nuclear import and specifies cell fates and differentiation patterns along the proximodistal limb axis.

(Homeobox Protein Meis1, NCI Thesaurus)

The team identified a transporter from a species of microalgae that could import the unnatural bases from the surrounding environment into the cell.

(Expanding the Genetic Alphabet, NIH)

There is little evidence of walrus ivory imports to mainland Europe after 1400.

(Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland, University of Cambridge)

However, they note that it is hard to find evidence of walrus ivory imports to Europe that date after 1400.

(Lost Norse of Greenland fuelled the medieval ivory trade, ancient walrus DNA suggests, University of Cambridge)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"A watched kettle never boils." (English proverb)

"A man who would not love his father's grave is worse than a wild animal." (Native American quotes, Chief Joseph, Nez Perce)

"Birds of a feather flock together." (Arabic proverb)

"Who seeds wind, shall harvest storm." (Dutch proverb)



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