Constraint


[kuh n-streynt] /kənˈstreɪnt/

noun
1.
limitation or restriction.
2.
repression of natural feelings and impulses:
to practice constraint.
3.
unnatural restraint in manner, conversation, etc.; embarrassment.
4.
something that .
5.
the act of .
6.
the condition of being .
7.
Linguistics. a restriction on the operation of a linguistic rule or the occurrence of a linguistic construction.
/kənˈstreɪnt/
noun
1.
compulsion, force, or restraint
2.
repression or control of natural feelings or impulses
3.
a forced unnatural manner; inhibition
4.
something that serves to constrain; restrictive condition: social constraints kept him silent
5.
(linguistics) any very general restriction on a sentence formation rule
n.

late 14c., “distress, oppression,” from Old French constreinte “binding, constraint, compulsion” (Modern French contrainte), fem. noun from constreint, past participle of constreindre, from Vulgar Latin *constrinctus, from Latin constrictus (see constrain). Meaning “coercion, compulsion” is from 1530s.
programming, mathematics
A Boolean relation, often an equality or ineqality relation, between the values of one or more mathematical variables (often two). E.g. x>3 is a constraint on x. constraint satisfaction attempts to assign values to variables so that all constraints are true.
Usenet newsgroup: news:comp.constraints. FAQ (http://cs.unh.edu/ccc/archive/).
(2002-06-08)

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  • Constraintlisp

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  • Constraint logic programming

    (CLP) A programming framework based (like Prolog) on LUSH (or SLD) resolution, but in which unification has been replaced by a constraint solver. A CLP interpreter contains a Prolog-like inference engine and an incremental constraint solver. The engine sends constraints to the solver one at a time. If the new constraint is consistent with the […]

  • Constraints

    [kuh n-streynt] /kənˈstreɪnt/ noun 1. limitation or restriction. 2. repression of natural feelings and impulses: to practice constraint. 3. unnatural restraint in manner, conversation, etc.; embarrassment. 4. something that . 5. the act of . 6. the condition of being . 7. Linguistics. a restriction on the operation of a linguistic rule or the occurrence […]

  • Constraint satisfaction

    application The process of assigning values to variables while meeting certain requirements or “constraints”. For example, in graph colouring, a node is a variable, the colour assigned to it is its value and a link between two nodes represents the constraint that those two nodes must not be assigned the same colour. In scheduling, constraints […]


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