taxis

Pluraltaxes

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of taxi.

   Yellow taxis crowded the busy downtown avenue.

   The hotel called two taxis for the early-morning guests.

   Note

   The regular -s plural, and it serves every noun sense of taxi. That includes city cabs and the shared taxis of Iran and South Africa. It also covers aviation, where taxis are the movements an aircraft makes across an airport's surface under its own power. Although it is spelled exactly like the biologist's word, it is unrelated, and that word's plural is taxes.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of taxi.

   The aircraft taxis to its assigned gate once the engines power down.

   She taxis the small plane carefully along the narrow grass strip.

   Note

   One present-tense form covers both verbs of taxi. In aviation, a plane taxis on its own or a pilot taxis it. In the everyday sense, a person taxis somewhere by cab. Context settles which is meant: runways and gates point one way, streets and fares the other.

   After the late shift she usually taxis home rather than waiting for the bus.

   He taxis across town to every meeting and expenses the fares.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The directed movement of an organism toward or away from a stimulus such as light, heat, or a chemical signal.

   Like a plant's roots growing down toward water: movement steered by a signal.

   Researchers studied the taxis that guides bacteria toward higher sugar concentrations.

   Negative taxis drives the larvae into shaded crevices during the day.

   Note

   A biologist's term, usually qualified by direction: positive taxis carries an organism toward a stimulus, negative taxis carries it away. The word comes from Greek táxis, "arrangement, order", which suits a movement lined up with its stimulus. Its plural is taxes, spelled exactly like the plural of tax, and the singular itself can be mistaken for the plural of taxi. In writing, context nearly always settles which word is meant.

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The hands-on repositioning of a displaced body part to its normal place following a dislocation or fracture.

   Like easing a dislodged puzzle piece back into its slot by hand.

   The surgeon attempted taxis before considering a more invasive operation.

   Reduction by taxis spared the patient from immediate surgery.

   Similarreduction

   Note

   A surgeon's word for setting a displaced part right by hand. Reduction is the broader term for returning a part to its place, and it is a close synonym. Taxis names the manual way of doing it, without an incision, which is why it is tried before an operation. The two words can appear together, as in reduction by taxis, where taxis names the method.

5. 5
   nouncountable or uncountable

   Arrangement or ordering in general, as in the organization of parts in architecture or grammar.

   Like the balanced placement of pillars and arches that gives a building its order.

   The architect praised the careful taxis of the building's structural elements.

   A clear taxis of the clauses gave the long sentence its readability.

   Similararrangement, order, ordering, organization

6. 6
   nounrhetoriccountable or uncountable

   The ordered arrangement of the different parts of a topic or subject.

   Like an outline that groups ideas so each section flows into the next.

   The lecturer's taxis moved logically from causes to effects.

   Good taxis kept the complex topic easy to understand throughout.

   Similararrangement, organization, structure

   Note

   Here the word stays closest to its Greek meaning of "order": rhetoric uses it for the sequence in which a speaker or writer lays out the parts of a subject. Taxis is judged by how well that sequence serves the listener, for example causes before effects. It belongs to the vocabulary of rhetoric and composition rather than everyday talk. It works both as a mass noun (good taxis) and as a countable one (the lecturer's taxis).

7. 7
   nounhistoricalcountable or uncountable

   A brigade-sized unit of soldiers in an Ancient Greek army.

   The Athenian taxis held the line against the Persian advance.

   A single taxis could number several hundred hoplites.

   Note

   A word for the history page rather than the present: it names units in the armies of the Greek city-states, typically hoplites drawn from a single tribe or region. Modern writers use it only when describing those armies. Brigade is an approximate English equivalent, not an exact translation, so for any modern formation, brigade itself is the right word.

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