issue

Less common meanings

7. 7
   investmentnouncountable

   A financial instrument, such as a bond or share, that a company has put out.

   The fund holds several corporate issues with high yields.

   Analysts rated the new issue as low risk.

   Similarsecurity

   Note

   Finance uses the word for both the act and the thing. Here it is the security itself, the bond or share an investor can hold, while the sale that creates it is the event.

8. 8
   flow outverbintransitive

   To come, flow or go out from a place or source.

   A thin stream of light issued from the gap beneath the door.

   Gases can issue from volcanic vents long after an eruption ends.

   UsageWith from or forth: issue from a vent, issue forth.

   Similaremerge, flow, emanate, stream

   Note

   The verb's root sense, using one outward picture for many things: water from a spring, rents from land, and, in the King James Bible of 1611, sons who "shall issue from thee". The same image underlies children as heirs and the yield of land. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • The verb has an underlying sense of going or flowing out. en.wiktionary.org
   • The King James Bible was first published in 1611. en.wikipedia.org
   • The King James Bible uses “shall issue from thee” of sons, in 2 Kings 20:18. en.wikisource.org
9. 9
   descendantsnounfigurativelyuncountable

   A person's children, or all their descendants, especially in law.

   The estate was to remain among the founder's issue for as long as the line endured.

   Her issue spread across three continents within a century.

   Similaroffspring, descendants, progeny, children

   Oppositeancestors

10. 10
    result inverbintransitive

    To turn out in a certain way or end in a particular result.

    Months of negotiation issued in a lasting peace treaty.

    Reckless lending can issue in a wider financial collapse.

    UsageFollowed by in + the result: issued in a lasting peace.

    Similarresult, end, culminate

    Note

    John Burrow's A History of Histories (2007) has Livy's patriotism issuing "in an antiquarian attention to the city's origins." Keep it apart from issue from, which points back to a source rather than forward to a result. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • John Burrow wrote A History of Histories. penguin.co.uk
    • A History of Histories was first published in 2007. openlibrary.org
    • Burrow describes Livy's patriotism using the quoted wording; these are Burrow's words about Livy. en.wiktionary.org
11. 11
    nouncountable

    The whole set of copies produced in one printing, especially a single printing of an edition contrasted with other print runs.

    Collectors prize the first issue, printed before the typos were corrected.

    The publisher's second issue used cheaper paper than the first.

    Similarprinting, impression, run

    Note

    Collectors care about this sense because printing errors can set one run apart from another. The May 1918 issue of US 24-cent airmail stamps became famous because one sheet of 100 had the plane printed upside down. In book collecting it marks a finer division than edition: one edition can appear in several issues, though strict bibliography calls a single printing an impression. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Printing variations can distinguish copies within an edition and interest collectors. en.wikipedia.org
    • The US 24-cent airmail stamp was issued in May 1918 and became famous through a sheet of 100 showing the airplane upside down. about.usps.com
    • An issue is a subdivision of an edition, so an edition can have several issues. library.missouri.edu
    • The bibliographical term for copies printed at one time is impression. libraries.ou.edu
12. 12
    open ontoverbintransitive

    To open onto or extend into a particular space or area.

    The corridor issues onto a wide terrace overlooking the sea.

    Several side streets issue into the main square.

    UsageFollowed by onto or into: issues onto a terrace.

    Similaropen, lead, give, empty

13. 13
    nounslangfigurativelywith the

    The entire set of something, taken as a complete whole.

    Similarlot, stock, entirety, totality

    Note

    Soldiers' slang from the First World War, used to mean the whole lot. It probably grew from the handing out of rations and supplies, where an issue was whatever portion was given out. The figurative use usually takes the definite article and has a sweeping tone, so a sergeant who pockets the whole issue of booze has taken every last drop. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • The whole-lot sense originated in First World War military slang. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    outflownouncountable or uncountable

    The act or an instance of flowing or coming out, such as water from a spring or fluid from the body.

    Geologists recorded the issue of hot water from the vent for several weeks.

    Firm pressure on the wound slowed the issue of blood until the ambulance arrived.

    Similardischarge, outflow, emission

    Note

    This is the word's literal movement: Middle English issue, from Old French issue, "an exit, a way out", from issir, "to exit", and ultimately Latin exeō, "go out". The going-out also names what goes out, the way out, and how things come out, which is a result or outcome. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • English issue comes through Middle English issue from Old French issue, meaning an exit or way out. en.wiktionary.org
    • Old French issue derives from issir, meaning to exit. en.wiktionary.org
    • Issir ultimately derives from the Latin verb exeō, whose infinitive is exīre. en.wiktionary.org
    • Latin exeō means go out. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    river mouthnounarchaic

    The point where a river meets the sea or where a lake drains away: an outlet or mouth.

    Note

    Water's way out. A lake's issue is where it drains, and a river's is the mouth where it ends. This sense stays close to the Old French "way out" behind the whole word. It is archaic, and modern geography says outlet or mouth. Meeting the issue of the river in older prose, read a place, not a problem. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Issue can mean a lake's outlet or a river's mouth. en.wiktionary.org
    • The word derives through Middle English from Old French issue, meaning an exit or way out. en.wiktionary.org
    • Issue also meant an exit from a room or building, which corresponds directly to 'way out'; the geographical sense is therefore not uniquely closest. en.wiktionary.org
16. 16
    drained fluidnounarchaic

    The bodily fluid that drains away through a natural opening or an artificially made one.

    For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

    1611, The Holy Bible, King James Version

    Note

    The fluid itself rather than its flowing. Where the outflow names the motion, this names the substance that comes out. The opening it drains through could itself be called an issue, as with the surgeon's kept-open drain. The sense is archaic, and the King James Bible of 1611 applies it bluntly to horses. In modern writing, discharge is the safer word. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Issue has distinct senses for bodily fluid and its outflow. en.wiktionary.org
    • A deliberately maintained surgical opening used to drain fluid could be called an issue. upload.wikimedia.org
    • The King James Bible was first published in 1611. wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk
    • The King James Bible uses issue for bodily fluid in a comparison involving horses, in Ezekiel 23:20. en.wikisource.org
17. 17
    land incomenounarchaic

    The produce or income that comes from farmland or rental property.

    Similaryield

    Note

    Its natural home is the conveyancer's triplet issues, rents and profits, where it is plural and stands for what the land itself produces alongside the money it brings in. Outside such documents it is archaic, and a modern writer would say yield or income. In the singular it is easily misread as a matter in dispute. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Issues occurs in the plural in a conveyancing formula alongside rents and profits. legislation.gov.uk
    • In this property sense, issues denotes produce or income derived from land. en.wiktionary.org
18. 18
    outcome of talksnounarchaic

    The end or outcome of an action or process, such as a negotiation.

    Note

    Here the issue is how things ended, not the point argued over. That is the trap in older diplomatic prose, where the issue of the negotiations reports their outcome, whether or not the parties reached agreement. The sense is archaic, and a modern writer would say outcome or result. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • In this sense, issue means a result or outcome rather than a disputed point. en.wiktionary.org
    • It can refer to the outcome generally, including an uncertain outcome; it does not necessarily imply that agreement was reached. gutenberg.org
19. 19
    nounrarehistoricaluncountable

    The income derived from fines imposed by a court or law officer, or the fines themselves.

    Similarproceeds, revenue, income

    Note

    Revenue again, this time from the courts. Fines are pictured as flowing out to whoever held the right to them, the same image that gives the yield of land. The sense is historical and rare, met in older legal records rather than in modern law, which names fines and fine income directly. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Issue can mean court-derived fine revenue or the fines themselves. en.wiktionary.org
    • The fine-revenue and land-yield meanings share the underlying image of something flowing or coming out. en.wiktionary.org
    • Historical legal records use issues for revenue collected for an entitled recipient. en.wikisource.org
20. 20
    verb

    In a legal case, to arrive at the precise point of fact or law on which the opposing parties take contrary positions.
21. 21
    noun

    Any person or thing that flows out or comes out from somewhere.
22. 22
    nounarchaic

    A small incision, tear, or deliberately made sore, kept open with a pea or similar object to drain fluid.

    Issues and fontanels were supposed remedies for joint diseases, pulmonary tuberculosis, and other chronic conditions.

    2005, James Harold Kirkup, The Evolution of Surgical Instruments
23. 23
    nounobsolete

    An advance by soldiers out against the enemy.
24. 24
    nounobsolete

    A whole people seen as coming from one shared ancestor.
25. 25
    nounobsolete

    The guts and inner organs of an animal killed for meat.
26. 26
    nounobsolete

    Something a person does, a deed.
27. 27
    nounobsolete

    Fortune, good or bad, seen as handed out by fate or by God.
28. 28
    nounobsolete

    A drain that carries away waste water.
29. 29
    nounobsolete

    A door or passage for leaving a place.

    How if there were no centre at all, but just one alley after another, and the whole world a labyrinth without end or issue?

    1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque
30. 30
    nounobsolete

    A situation where you must pick one of two unwelcome paths.
31. 31
    nounarchaic

    The experience of an emotion, or a single instance of it.
32. 32
    nounarchaic

    Coming out of a situation or way of being.