"technicality" meaning in English

See technicality in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˌtɛknɪˈkælɪti/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-technicality.wav [Southern-England] Forms: technicalities [plural]
Etymology: technical + -ity Etymology templates: {{suffix|en|technical|ity}} technical + -ity Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} technicality (countable and uncountable, plural technicalities)
  1. The quality or state of being technical. Tags: countable, uncountable Synonyms: technicalness
    Sense id: en-technicality-en-noun-yQe7miO~ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms suffixed with -ity Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 65 13 22 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -ity: 68 13 18
  2. That which is technical, or peculiar to any trade, profession, sect, or the like. Tags: countable, uncountable
    Sense id: en-technicality-en-noun-EITnHgK8
  3. A minor detail, rule, law, etc., seemingly insignificant to a non-specialist but which has significant consequences in larger matters. Tags: countable, uncountable
    Sense id: en-technicality-en-noun-sq5H1isb Categories (other): English terms with collocations

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for technicality meaning in English (4.6kB)

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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "technical",
        "3": "ity"
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      "expansion": "technical + -ity",
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  "etymology_text": "technical + -ity",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "technicalities",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  "head_templates": [
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "65 13 22",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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        {
          "_dis": "68 13 18",
          "kind": "other",
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Position vectors, homologous chromosomes and gamma rays: Promoting disciplinary literacy through Secondary Phrase Lists”, in English for Specific Purposes, →DOI, page 6",
          "text": "Ha and Hyland suggest that technicality is not binary and it is not always possible to say that a word is technical or not.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The quality or state of being technical."
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      "id": "en-technicality-en-noun-yQe7miO~",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "the technicalities of the sect",
          "type": "example"
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      "glosses": [
        "That which is technical, or peculiar to any trade, profession, sect, or the like."
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      "id": "en-technicality-en-noun-EITnHgK8",
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        {
          "text": "legal technicality",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1948, David K. Breed, The Trial of Christ from Legal and Scriptural Viewpoint, Library of Alexandria, page 8",
          "text": "These are some of the \"Reversible Errors\" on which a new trial can be had and are often spoken of by misinformed business men as \"technicalities,\" as when they say a certain gangster \"got off on a technicality\" or \"got a new trial on a technicality.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1996, Thomas Robert Shannon Broughton, Imperium Sine Fine, Franz Steiner Verlag, page 75",
          "text": "Mommsen believed that Claudius had been an augur who was ordered by a chief pontiff Metellus to inaugurate Sulpicius son of Servius as a priest, that Claudius declined on grounds of a religious technicality, that Claudius was subsequently fined by the chief pontiff, and that Claudius appealed the fine.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Robert Scott, Savage, Pinnacle Books, page 67",
          "text": "Benjamin Gonzales is a suspect in Dondi Johnson's murder - the only suspect we've ever had and the only suspect we ever will have. But at present we don't have a fileable case because of a legal technicality.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Beth Walston-Dunham, Introduction to Law, Cengage Learning, page 554",
          "text": "How often do we hear about someone who “got away” with committing a crime or who “got off on a technicality”? This type of remark is common when discussions arise about the shortcomings of the U.S. legal system.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2024 April 25, Gloria Oladipo, “Harvey Weinstein: New York court overturns 2020 rape conviction”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
          "text": "In 2021, Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out the sexual assault conviction of Bill Cosby on a legal technicality, after discovering an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented the actor from being charged in the case.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A minor detail, rule, law, etc., seemingly insignificant to a non-specialist but which has significant consequences in larger matters."
      ],
      "id": "en-technicality-en-noun-sq5H1isb",
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  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "ipa": "/ˌtɛknɪˈkælɪti/"
    },
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      "tags": [
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{
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          "text": "Ha and Hyland suggest that technicality is not binary and it is not always possible to say that a word is technical or not.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
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          "text": "the technicalities of the sect",
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        "That which is technical, or peculiar to any trade, profession, sect, or the like."
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          "text": "legal technicality",
          "type": "example"
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          "ref": "1948, David K. Breed, The Trial of Christ from Legal and Scriptural Viewpoint, Library of Alexandria, page 8",
          "text": "These are some of the \"Reversible Errors\" on which a new trial can be had and are often spoken of by misinformed business men as \"technicalities,\" as when they say a certain gangster \"got off on a technicality\" or \"got a new trial on a technicality.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1996, Thomas Robert Shannon Broughton, Imperium Sine Fine, Franz Steiner Verlag, page 75",
          "text": "Mommsen believed that Claudius had been an augur who was ordered by a chief pontiff Metellus to inaugurate Sulpicius son of Servius as a priest, that Claudius declined on grounds of a religious technicality, that Claudius was subsequently fined by the chief pontiff, and that Claudius appealed the fine.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Robert Scott, Savage, Pinnacle Books, page 67",
          "text": "Benjamin Gonzales is a suspect in Dondi Johnson's murder - the only suspect we've ever had and the only suspect we ever will have. But at present we don't have a fileable case because of a legal technicality.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Beth Walston-Dunham, Introduction to Law, Cengage Learning, page 554",
          "text": "How often do we hear about someone who “got away” with committing a crime or who “got off on a technicality”? This type of remark is common when discussions arise about the shortcomings of the U.S. legal system.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2024 April 25, Gloria Oladipo, “Harvey Weinstein: New York court overturns 2020 rape conviction”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
          "text": "In 2021, Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out the sexual assault conviction of Bill Cosby on a legal technicality, after discovering an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented the actor from being charged in the case.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
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      "tags": [
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.