- pertaining to or characterized by a fixed or stationary condition.
- showing little or no change: a static concept; a static relationship.
- lacking movement, development, or vitality: The novel was marred by static characterizations, especially in its central figures.
- Sociology. referring to a condition of social life bound by tradition.
- Electricity. pertaining to or noting static electricity.
- noting or pertaining to atmospheric electricity interfering with radar, radio, the sending and receiving of wireless messages, etc.
- Physics. acting by mere weight without producing motion: static pressure.
- Economics. pertaining to fixed relations, or different combinations of fixed quantities: static population.
- Computers. (of data storage, processing, or programming) unaffected by the passage of time or the presence or absence of power: A static website contains Web pages with fixed content that does not change as the user interacts with it.
- static or atmospheric electricity.
- interference due to such electricity.
- Informal. difficulty; trouble: Will your dad give you any static on using the car?
Origin of static
Related Words for staticimmobile, passive, immovable, stagnant, fixed, stationary, stable, still, constant, format, stabile, inactive, inert, latent, rigid, sticky, stopped, stuck, unchanging, unmoving
Examples from the Web for static
Contemporary Examples of static
But engine technology has not been static in the past decade.Does America’s $400 Billion Stealth Jet Need Another Engine?
July 31, 2014
This means that the camera has to be static and I have to include some explanatory inter-titles.Inside ‘Maidan’: Sergei Loznitsa on His Ukrainian Uprising Doc and Putin’s ‘Fascist’ Regime
May 24, 2014
Another Warhol “Screen Test”, this time shot in early 1965, and putting a static Edie Sedgwick on screen for four minutes.Warhol Gives Edie Sedgwick the Evil Eye
January 8, 2014
Each level consists of a static screen covered with blue and orange pegs.Gamer Life: I’m Addicted to ‘Peggle 2’
December 11, 2013
In fact, nothing is static in the West Bank, especially as Israel continues building settlements.Lapid Lost, Obama Distracts
March 21, 2013
Historical Examples of static
The static emerging from the speaker thickened, obliterating all other noises.The Second Voice
"Just a heavy charge of static electricity," replied the doctor.The Great Drought
Sterner St. Paul Meek
There was a babble of voices from the loudspeaker, punctuated by bursts of static.Death Wish
Straight at each other, neither moving, they shot their static charges.
Everywhere there has been a passage from the static to the dynamic.The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4)
J. Arthur Thomson
- not active or moving; stationary
- (of a weight, force, or pressure) acting but causing no movement
- of or concerned with forces that do not produce movementCompare dynamic (def. 1)
- relating to or causing stationary electric charges; electrostatic
- of or relating to interference in the reception of radio or television transmissions
- of or concerned with statics
- sociol characteristic of or relating to a society that has reached a state of equilibrium so that no changes are taking place
- computing (of a memory) not needing its contents refreshed periodicallyCompare dynamic (def. 5)
- random hissing or crackling or a speckled picture caused by the interference of electrical disturbances in the reception of radio or television transmissions
- electric sparks or crackling produced by friction
Word Origin for static
1640s (earlier statical, 1560s), "pertaining to the science of weight and its mechanical effects," from Modern Latin statica, from Greek statikos "causing to stand, skilled in weighing," from stem of histanai "to make to stand, set; to place in the balance, weigh," from PIE root *sta- "stand" (see stet). The sense of "having to do with bodies at rest or with forces that balance each other" is first recorded 1802. Applied to frictional electricity from 1839.
"random radio noise," 1912, from static (adj.). Figurative sense of "aggravation, criticism" is attested from 1926.
- Having no motion; being at rest. Compare dynamic.
- Relating to or producing static electricity.
- Distortion or interruption of a broadcast signal, such as crackling or noise in a receiver or specks on a television screen, often produced when background electromagnetic radiation in the atmosphere disturbs signal reception or when there are loose connections in the transmission or reception circuits.