different between environment vs hotbed

English

Etymology

From Middle French environnement, equivalent to environ +? -ment. Compare French environnement.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?va???(n)m?nt/, /?n?va??(n)m?nt/, /-m?nt/, /?n?-/

Noun

environment (plural environments)

1. The surroundings of, and influences on, a particular item of interest.
2. The natural world or ecosystem.
3. All the elements that affect a system or its inputs and outputs.
4. A particular political or social setting, arena or condition.
5. (computing) The software and/or hardware existing on any particular computer system.

6. (programming) The environment of a function at a point during the execution of a program is the set of identifiers in the function's scope and their bindings at that point.
7. (computing) The set of variables and their values in a namespace that an operating system associates with a process.

Synonyms

• umbworld

Derived terms

Related terms

• environ
• environmentalist
• environmentalism

Translations

References

• environment at OneLook Dictionary Search
• environment in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• environment in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• environment in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Etymology

hot +? bed

Noun

hotbed (plural hotbeds)

1. A low bed of earth covered with glass, and heated with rotting manure, used for the germination of seeds and the growth of tender plants, like a miniature hothouse.
2. (by extension) An environment that is ideal for the growth or development of something, especially of something undesirable.

   Synonym: seedbed

3. An iron platform in a rolling mill, on which hot bars, rails, etc., are laid to cool.

Translations

See also

• breeding-ground
• nidus