Definitions for Environmentɛnˈvaɪ rən mənt, -ˈvaɪ ərn-

Random House Webster's College Dictionary

en•vi•ron•ment^*ɛnˈvaɪ rən mənt, -ˈvaɪ ərn-(n.)

the aggregate of surrounding things, conditions, or influences; surroundings; milieu.
the air, water, minerals, organisms, and all other external factors surrounding and affecting a given organism at any time.
Category: Ecology
the social and cultural forces that shape the life of a person or a population.
Category: Sociology
the hardware or software configuration of a computer system.
Category: Computers

^* Syn: environment , milieu , ambiance , setting refer to the objects, conditions, or circumstances that influence the life of an individual or community. environment may refer to physical or to social and cultural surroundings: an environment of grinding poverty. milieu , encountered most often in literary writing, refers to intangible surroundings: a milieu of artistic innovation. ambiance applies to the mood or tone of the surroundings: an ambiance of ease and elegance. setting tends to highlight the person or thing surrounded by or set against a background: a lovely setting for a wedding.

Origin of environment:

1825–30

en•vi`ron•men′tal•ly(adv.)

Princeton's WordNet

environment(noun)
the totality of surrounding conditions
"he longed for the comfortable environment of his living room"
environment, environs, surroundings, surround(noun)
the area in which something exists or lives
"the country--the flat agricultural surround"

Kernerman English Learner's Dictionary

environmentɛnˈvaɪ rən mənt, -ˈvaɪ ərn-
the conditions in which sb lives or works
How does a child's environment affect their emotional health?; to improve the working environment

Wiktionary

environment(Noun)
The surroundings of, and influences on, a particular item of interest.
environment(Noun)
The natural world or ecosystem.
environment(Noun)
All the elements over which a designer has no control and that affect a system or its inputs and outputs.
environment(Noun)
A particular political or social setting, arena or condition.
environment(Noun)
The software and/or hardware existing on any particular computer system.
That program uses the Microsoft Windows environment.
environment(Noun)
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.
environment(Noun)
The set of variables and their values in a namespace that an operating system associates with a process.

Origin: As if environ + -ment; compare to environnement.

Webster Dictionary

Environment(noun)
act of environing; state of being environed
Environment(noun)
that which environs or surrounds; surrounding conditions, influences, or forces, by which living forms are influenced and modified in their growth and development

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Environment
a term of extensive use in biological science, especially employed to denote the external conditions which go to determine modifications in the development of organic life to the extent often of producing new species.