method
Pluralmethods
Pluralmethods
Formsmethods, methoding, methoded
- 1A particular way of doing something, especially one that follows a set process for completing a task or reaching a purpose.
The lab adopted a faster method for analyzing soil samples.
Different cultures developed their own methods of preserving food through the winter.
Usagea method of or for doing something (a method for cleaning floors); you use, adopt or try a method.
- 2An acting technique, based on Stanislavski's ideas, in which the performer authentically experiences the inner life of the character being portrayed.
She trained in the method for years before landing her breakout role.
Critics praised his use of the method to inhabit such a troubled character.
UsageUsually with the: train in the method. The fuller term is method acting; someone who uses it is a method actor.
- 3A subroutine or function that belongs to a class or object, usually operating on its data.
The class defines a method for validating user input before saving.
She overrode the parent class's method to change how the object behaved.
UsageProgrammers call a method (a method call), define one in a class, or override it.
Note
Object-oriented programming's name for a routine that belongs to a class or object, called a member function in C++. Here a method is a piece of code, not a procedure a person follows.
Less common meanings
- 4Orderliness and systematic intention in how something is done; the quality of acting with purpose rather than at random.
Behind the apparent chaos of the workshop, there was genuine method.
He brought method and discipline to a team that had worked haphazardly for years.
UsageOften there is method in something. Set phrase: method in the madness, or method to the madness, a plan behind strange behavior.
Similarorder, system, organization, orderliness, structure
Oppositedisorder, chaos, randomness, disorganization
Note
Its best-known line comes from Shakespeare's Hamlet, "Though this be madness, yet there is method in't." The construction method in still carries that sense of order under apparent chaos, as in Gay Community News in 1980: "There's method in the universe."
- 5An instruction book whose material is systematically arranged, especially for learning a musical instrument or skill.
He worked through a classic violin method page by page.
Her grandfather's old clarinet method, a worn book of graded exercises, still sat on the music stand.
UsageUsually named with its instrument: a violin method, a method for flute.
- 6To apply a method to something, treating it according to a set procedure.
Similarsystematize
Oppositeimprovise
- 7In metal casting, to plan the mold arrangements for a casting, especially its feeding and gating systems.
- 8Ellipsis of method air.
- 9Marijuana, particularly the dried form smoked recreationally.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
This word comes through Middle French methode from Latin methodus, which itself derives from Ancient Greek μέθοδος (méthodos).
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- English method comes through Middle French methode from Latin methodus and ultimately Ancient Greek μέθοδος (méthodos). en.wiktionary.org