# uniform

Pronunciation: US say "YOO-ni-form" /ˈjunɪˌfɔɹm/; UK say "YOO-ni-fawm" /ˈjuːnɪfɔːm/

## Noun

1. A distinctive outfit that identifies the members of a group, such as a company, a school, or a prison population.
   - Simple: Special matching clothes that show you belong to a group, like a school or team.
   - _Inmates received an orange uniform along with their bedding when they arrived._
   - _The hotel requires its bellhops to wear uniforms during every shift._
4. A police officer who wears the standard uniform, as opposed to a plainclothes detective.
   - Simple: A police officer who wears a uniform, not a detective in plain clothes.
   - _The sergeant posted a uniform at each exit before the raid began._
   - _Detectives took over the case once the uniforms had secured the scene._
6. Alternative letter-case form of Uniform from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet.
   - Simple: Alternative letter-case form of Uniform from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet. It stands for the letter U when people spell words out loud over the radio.
   - _Tower cleared 'november uniform six' to land on runway two seven._
   - _The radio operator confirmed the grid square as 'uniform sierra' before sending the coordinates._

## Adjective

2. Not varying; the same in all parts or across all cases.
   - Simple: The same in every part or every case, with no differences.
   - _The fabric has a uniform texture from edge to edge._
   - _Test scores were remarkably uniform across all five schools._
3. Consistent; conforming to a single standard or rule.
   - Simple: Following one standard, so it is done the same way everywhere.
   - _Federal regulations impose uniform safety requirements on manufacturers nationwide._
   - _The style guide keeps formatting uniform across all company documents._
7. Of convergence or a similar limiting property: occurring at a rate that does not depend on the choice of point or argument, as in uniform continuity or uniform convergence.
   - Simple: In math, happening at the same rate for every input, not faster in some places.
   - _The series converges to its limit, and the convergence is uniform on the closed interval._
   - _Because the bound is uniform, a single choice of N works for every point at once._
8. Of a polymer or similar substance: composed of a single macromolecular species.
   - Simple: Made of only one kind of large molecule, not a mix of different ones.
   - _Analysis showed the sample to be uniform, with every polymer chain identical in length and structure._
   - _Chemists prize a uniform polymer when studying how chain length affects material strength._
9. Of a polyhedron, having all vertices alike and regular polygons as faces; of a higher-dimensional polytope, having all vertices alike and facets of this kind.
   - Simple: In geometry, having corners that are all alike and faces that are all perfectly regular shapes.
   - _The truncated icosahedron is uniform, with one pentagon and two hexagons meeting at every vertex._
   - _Prisms with square sides and regular ends count among the uniform polyhedra._

## Verb

5. To clothe someone in a uniform.
   - Simple: To dress a person or group in matching official clothes.
   - _Wealthy households would uniform their footmen in elaborate livery._
   - _The department uniforms its recruits during their first week at the academy._

## Origin

Borrowed from Middle French "uniforme," which came from Latin "uniformis."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/uniform (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).