Function

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

·vi ·Alt. of Functionate.

II. Function ·noun The act of executing or performing any duty, office, or calling; per formance.

III. Function ·add. ·noun A religious ceremony, ·esp. one particularly impressive and elaborate.

IV. Function ·add. ·noun A public or social ceremony or gathering; a festivity or entertainment, ·esp. one somewhat formal.

V. Function ·noun The natural or assigned action of any power or faculty, as of the soul, or of the intellect; the exertion of an energy of some determinate kind.

VI. Function ·noun The course of action which peculiarly pertains to any public officer in church or state; the activity appropriate to any business or profession.

VII. Function ·noun The appropriate action of any special organ or part of an animal or vegetable organism; as, the function of the heart or the limbs; the function of leaves, sap, roots, ·etc.; life is the sum of the functions of the various organs and parts of the body.

VIII. Function ·noun A quantity so connected with another quantity, that if any alteration be made in the latter there will be a consequent alteration in the former. Each quantity is said to be a function of the other. Thus, the circumference of a circle is a function of the diameter. If x be a symbol to which different numerical values can be assigned, such expressions as x2, 3x, Log(x), and Sin(x), are all functions of x.