technical

English

Etymology

From Late Latin technicus +‎ -al, from Ancient Greek τεχνικός (tekhnikós), from τέχνη (tékhnē, “skill”).

For the late 20th-century origin of the noun sense (vehicle), see Wikipedia.

Pronunciation

Adjective

technical (comparative more technical, superlative most technical)

  2. Specifically related to a particular discipline.
    Synonym: technic
    Particle physics uses the word spin in a technical sense.
    • 2025 December 5, John Fritze, “Supreme Court agrees to decide if Trump may end birthright citizenship”, in CNN‎[1], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 11 April 2026:
      By granting the appeal, the court is directly taking on the merits of a controversy that it largely avoided earlier this year, when it sided with Trump on technical grounds dealing with how the challenges to the policy were handled by lower courts.
    1. (by extension) difficult to understand for those not specialized in this discipline.
      • 2025 April 22, Artem S. Tashkinov, Why Linux is not ready for the desktop (the final edition)‎[2], archived from the original on 28 August 2026:
        This part of the article is going to be quite technical but I cannot avoid it. It's a very complex topic.
    • 2006, Asaf Darr, Selling Technology, page 94:
      One example of the blurring of boundaries is the growing interdependence of social and technical skills. The sales engineers and the clients' engineers are all knowledge workers.
  4. Of or related to technology.
    Synonyms: technological, technologic
    Since the 1940s there had been many technical advancements, and a Mach 3 interceptor was no longer a mere pipe dream.
  6. (of a person) Technically minded; adept with science and technology.
    Kayla can probably get the printer working. She's technical like that.
  9. (securities and other markets) Relating to the internal mechanics of a market rather than more basic factors.
    The market had a technical rally, due to an oversold condition.
  11. In the strictest sense, but not practically or meaningfully.
    Crossing the front lawn of that house to get to the mailbox was a technical trespass.

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Translations

Noun

technical (countable and uncountable, plural technicals)

  1. A pickup truck with a gun mounted on it.
    • 2007 January 2, Jeffrey Gettleman, “After 15 Years, Someone’s in Charge in Somalia, if Barely”, in The New York Times‎[4], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 December 2024:
      “Individuals or groups of people who have trucks mounted with antiaircraft guns, known as ‘technicals,’ should bring those battlewagons to Mogadishu’s old port,” he said.
  2. (basketball) Ellipsis of technical foul.
  3. (video games) A special move in certain fighting games that cancels out the effect of an opponent's attack.
  4. Ellipsis of technical school.
  5. Ellipsis of technical course.
  6. Ellipsis of technical examination.
  7. (informal, countable, uncountable) Ellipsis of technical rehearsal.

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Anagrams

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