configuration
Pluralconfigurations
- 1The way in which the parts or members of a set are placed in relation to one another.
Investigators photographed the configuration of the wreckage before anything was moved.
The seating configuration in the new theater gives every guest a clear view of the stage.
Similararrangement, layout, positioning, disposition, setup
- 2The form of an object, as determined by the relative placement of its parts.
The aircraft's unusual wing configuration gives it remarkable stability at low speeds.
Geologists mapped the configuration of the canyon walls before drilling began.
Similarstructure, form, arrangement, composition, makeup
Note
The word's construction shows here: configure plus -ation, reaching English through Middle French from Latin cōnfigūrātiō. Figure sits visibly inside it, and figure and constitution are among its near-synonyms. It works as both a count and a mass noun. Engineers test several configurations of a device, while a mountain range simply has a configuration of its own.
- 3The way a computing environment, whether hardware or software, is set up or customized to its users' needs.
The server's default configuration left several ports open to the internet.
Each developer maintains a separate configuration for testing and for production.
Note
This is the state of a system, not the act of setting it up. It covers the full set of hardware components, software parameters and settings that determines how the system behaves. That set is typically recorded in files so it can be reproduced, audited or rolled back. Because it is countable, a server has a default configuration and a developer can keep several. The act itself belongs to the process sense.
- 4The process of setting up or customizing a computing environment to meet its users' needs.
Automatic configuration of network devices has eliminated hours of manual setup work.
The manual devotes an entire chapter to configuration of the firewall.
Similarsetup, customization
Note
The process noun takes no plural and usually no article. Writers say configuration of the firewall, not a configuration of it. In modern practice the work is often automated through scripts or declarative tools rather than done by hand. That is why automatic configuration and manual configuration are its everyday companions.
- 5The pattern of positions occupied by electrons within a physical structure, such as an atom, molecule, or crystal.
Sodium's electron configuration explains why it gives up an electron so readily.
Chemists compare the configurations of neighboring elements to predict how they will bond.
Note
Chemists seldom use the bare word here. The working phrase is electron configuration. It records how electrons are distributed among the orbitals or energy levels of an atom, molecule or solid. By convention it is written in shell notation, as in 1s² 2s² 2p⁶ for neon, and it is central to predicting chemical and spectroscopic behavior. In this sense the noun is always countable.
- 6The relative positions of the planets at a given time, regarded in astrology as shaping the character of a horoscope.
Renaissance astrologers timed coronations to coincide with a favorable configuration of the heavens.
The almanac warned that the month's configuration boded ill for sea voyages.
Similaralignment
Note
Astrology narrows the general "arrangement" meaning to the planets at a single moment. Their angular relationships and their placement among the houses are read as giving a horoscope its character. Aspect is the astrologer's term for those relationships, and the face of the horoscope is the whole picture they make. The word is at home in timing and prediction, as in a favorable configuration or one that bodes ill.
- 7A finite set of points and lines, and sometimes planes, typically with equal numbers of points on each line and equal numbers of lines through each point.
The Fano plane is the smallest configuration in which every line carries exactly three points.
She proved that no configuration with those parameters can be drawn using straight lines.
Note
Here the word names a mathematical object, not an arrangement of something else. It is an incidence structure of finitely many points and lines in which each point lies on a fixed number of lines and each line carries a fixed number of points. Mathematicians label a configuration by those counts, often in the form (p_γ, ℓ_π). A whole branch of the subject asks which configurations can be drawn with straight lines.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of configuration apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
From Middle French configuration, from Latin cōnfigūrātiō. Morphologically it is configure combined with the suffix -ation.