Function

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /ˈfʌŋ(k)ʃən/

Definitions

1. A relation or expression in mathematics defining how inputs correspond to outputs ; the purpose or task something is designed to perform ; a formal gathering or ceremony usually with a specific social or official purpose
2. An operation in math that assigns each input a specific output ; the reason why something exists or is done ; an organized event attended by people for a particular occasion
3. A rule or process that maps values to results in math ; the role or duty fulfilled by a person or thing ; a scheduled social or formal occasion often with a planned agenda

Etymology: The mathematical sense of "function" is a late, deliberate narrowing of a much older Latin idea of carrying out a task. The Latin "functio" meant "performance" or "execution," and it came from "fungor," "to perform, execute, discharge," which is the source of English "function" in its everyday sense of a job a thing does. Before it described a rule that turns inputs into outputs, the word meant something closer to a duty discharged or an activity carried out. The path into English ran through Old and Middle French ("fonction" and "function"), and the word kept its general sense of an official duty or the proper activity of a body part or machine for centuries. The mathematical meaning arrived when mathematicians needed a name for a quantity that depends on another quantity, and they borrowed the existing term for "the thing something does" to describe it.

Synonyms: role, purpose, operation, duty, task

Antonyms: dysfunction, malfunction, ineffectiveness