Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A locality; a place.
  • noun A center or focus of great activity or intense concentration.
  • noun Mathematics The set or configuration of all points whose coordinates satisfy a single equation or one or more algebraic conditions.
  • noun The position that a given gene or genetic marker occupies on a chromosome.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A place; spot; locality.
  • noun In anatomy, some place, specifically named by a qualifying term.
  • noun In mathematics, a curve considered as generated by a moving point, or a surface considered as generated by a moving line; the partly indeterminate position of a point subject to an equation or to two equations in analytical geometry; a curve considered as generated by its moving tangent or by a moving curve of which it is the envelop; any system of points, lines, or planes defined by general conditions, and, in general, partly indeterminate.
  • noun In optics, the figure formed by the foci of a set of pencils of converging or diverging rays; an optical image.
  • noun A place or passage in a writing; in the plural, a collection of passages, especially from the Scriptures or other ancient writings, methodically selected and arranged as bearing upon some special topic or topics of study; a catena; a book or work consisting of such a selection.
  • noun The words and figures, in the signature to a quotation or in a reference to a passage, which designate the particular place or division of the work (book, chapter, page, section, verse, line, etc.) where the passage in question occurs. The locus properly follows the title of the work or piece cited, and the title follows the name of the author.
  • noun In geometry, the place of all the points, and of only those points, which satisfy a given condition.
  • To stupefy with drink.
  • noun Something which stupefies, as liquor.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A place; a locality.
  • noun (Math.) The line traced by a point which varies its position according to some determinate law; the surface described by a point or line that moves according to a given law.
  • noun a locus that is a straight line, or a circle.
  • noun a locus that is one of the conic sections.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A place or locality, especially a centre of activity or the scene of a crime.
  • noun mathematics The set of all points whose coordinates satisfy a given equation or condition.
  • noun genetics A fixed position on a chromosome that may be occupied by one or more genes.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the specific site of a particular gene on its chromosome
  • noun the scene of any event or action (especially the place of a meeting)
  • noun the set of all points or lines that satisfy or are determined by specific conditions

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin locus.

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Examples

  • We can argue about whether the White House or the Hill was the main locus of the madness, but it was truly mad.

    Matthew Yglesias » People Trust The Government When The Economy is Good 2010

  • The locus is a coalition of forty church congregations who battled the city of New York for vacant land in order to build owner-occupied row houses.

    Organizing the South Bronx by Jim Rooney 2008

  • The locus is a coalition of forty church congregations who battled the city of New York for vacant land in order to build owner-occupied row houses.

    August « 2008 « Bill Ayers 2008

  • Kucherlapati, R.S. Insertion of DNA sequences into the human chromosomal beta-globin locus by homologous recombination.

    The 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - Advanced Information 2007

  • If the Southern Hemisphere comes to dominate Christianity — and hence becomes the main locus of conflict between Christianity and Islam — what sort of effect will that have on the tensions between Islamic powers and the North?

    Christianity's New Center 2002

  • If the Southern Hemisphere comes to dominate Christianity — and hence becomes the main locus of conflict between Christianity and Islam — what sort of effect will that have on the tensions between Islamic powers and the North?

    Christianity's New Center 2002

  • The results show that removing the alpha-gliadin locus from the short arm of chromosome 6 of the D-genome (6DS) resulted in a significant decrease in the presence of T-cell stimulatory epitopes but also in a significant loss of technological properties.

    BioMed Central - Latest articles 2009

  • (norepinephrine), which is released by a brain stem nucleus called the locus coeruleus and other nuclei associated with it.

    ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science 2010

  • I hope they fix the ‘soul delay’ bug where, after teleporting, your voice locus is where you tp’d from.

    Second Life Takes Aim at Skype 2009

  • What psychologists call the locus of control matters in ethics: it can, indeed, completely change the nature of an ethical issue.

    superversive: Website update superversive 2010

Comments

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  • In Latin the plural of this was either loci or loca, depending on the shade of meaning: places/seats in the theatre, posts/stations in war, spots/localities in the country, and places/ranks in society were normally loca; grounds of an argument, places/passages in an author were normally loci.

    June 15, 2009