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a speech or written statement, usually formal, directed to a particular group of persons:
the president’s address on the state of the economy.
a direction as to the intended recipient, written on or attached to a piece of mail.
the place or the name of the place where a person, organization, or the like is located or may be reached:
what is your address when you’re in des moines?
manner of speaking to persons; personal bearing in conversation.
skillful and expeditious management; ready skill; dispatch:
to handle a matter with address.
computers.

a label, as an integer, symbol, or other set of characters, designating a location, register, etc., where information is stored in computer memory.
a set of characters designating an email account: her email address ends in “.net,” not “.com.”.
a set of characters designating the location of a website or a particular computer or other device on a network:
he visits that website so often that its complete address comes up whenever he types its first letter into the address bar.
see also .

government. a request to the executive by the legislature to remove a judge for unfitness.
usually, addresses. attentions paid by a suitor or lover; courtship.
(usually initial capital letter) the reply to the king’s speech in the english parliament.
obsolete, .
to direct a speech or written statement to:
to address an -ssembly.
to use a specified form or t-tle in speaking or writing to: address the president as “mr. president.”.
to direct to the attention:
he addressed his remarks to the lawyers in the audience.
to apply in speech (used reflexively, usually followed by to):
he addressed himself to the leader.
to deal with or discuss:
to address the issues.
to put the directions for delivery on:
to address a letter.
commerce. to consign or entrust to the care of another, as agent or factor.
to direct the energy or efforts of (usually followed by to):
he addressed himself to the task.
to direct (data) to a specified location in an electronic computer.
golf. to take a stance and place the head of the club behind (the ball) preparatory to hitting it.
obsolete. to woo; court.
archaic. to give direction to; aim.
obsolete. to prepare.
to make an appeal.
to make .
contemporary examples

a spokesman for 60 minutes, kevin tedesco, did not address the disappearance of davies in a statement to the daily beast.
exclusive: why dylan davies disappeared eli lake november 13, 2013

when driving and looking for an address, i turn down the volume on the radio.
charles saatchi answers your questions the daily beast may 30, 2010

the court then heard from sollecito who sat at the witness stand to address the judge and lay judges hearing the case.
the nightmare end to amanda knox’s fairy tale barbie latza nadeau november 5, 2013

yang said cyber hacking in the u.s.-china relationship is no longer an issue solely for china to address.
snowden case roils major u.s.-china dialogue josh rogin july 14, 2013

the address book can be found on my table in the study should need same.
the man oswald first tried to kill before jfk bill minutaglio, steven l. davis october 2, 2013

historical examples

“by george, i forgot the fact that the card had an address on it,” baker exclaimed.
the film of fear arnold fredericks

billy, go up to the address he gives you, and get some of these se-gars.
the spenders harry leon wilson

the individual whom i address is probably the most popular beggar in the town.
the pearl of the antilles, or an artist in cuba walter goodman

but i concluded the mistake lay in the person; and that his address was to miss arabella.
clarissa, volume 1 (of 9) samuel richardson

the parcel should have the words “by parcel post,” plainlywritten on the address.
canadian postal guide various

noun
the conventional form by which the location of a building is described
the written form of this, as on a letter or parcel, preceded by the name of the person or organization for whom it is intended
the place at which someone lives
a speech or written communication, esp one of a formal nature
skilfulness or tact
(archaic) manner or style of speaking or conversation
(computing) a number giving the location of a piece of stored information see also direct access
(brit, government) a statement of the opinions or wishes of either or both houses of parliament that is sent to the sovereign
the alignment or position of a part, component, etc, that permits correct -ssembly or fitting
(usually pl) expressions of affection made by a man in courting a woman
verb (transitive) -dresses, -dressing, -dressed (obsolete or poetic) -drest
to mark (a letter, parcel, etc) with an address
to speak to, refer to in speaking, or deliver a speech to
(used reflexively; foll by to)

to speak or write to: he addressed himself to the chairman
to apply oneself to: he addressed himself to the task

to direct (a message, warning, etc) to the attention of
to consign or entrust (a ship or a ship’s cargo) to a factor, merchant, etc
to adopt a position facing (the ball in golf, a partner in a dance, the target in archery, etc)
to treat of; deal with: chapter 10 addresses the problem of transitivity
an archaic word for woo
v.

early 14c., “to guide or direct,” from old french adrecier “go straight toward; straighten, set right; point, direct” (13c.), from vulgar latin -addirectiare “make straight,” from latin ad “to” (see ad-) + -directiare, from latin directus “straight, direct” (see direct (v.)). late 14c. as “to set in order, repair, correct.” meaning “to write as a destination on a written message” is from mid-15c. meaning “to direct spoken words (to someone)” is from late 15c. related: addressed; addressing.
n.

1530s, “dutiful or courteous approach,” from address (v.) and from french adresse. sense of “formal speech” is from 1751. sense of “superscription of a letter” is from 1712 and led to the meaning “place of residence” (1888).

1. e-mail address.
2. ip address.
3. mac address.
4. an unsigned integer used to select one fundamental element of storage, usually known as a word from a computer’s main memory or other storage device. the cpu outputs addresses on its address bus which may be connected to an address decoder, cache controller, memory management unit, and other devices.
while from a hardware point of view an address is indeed an integer most strongly typed programming languages disallow mixing integers and addresses, and indeed addresses of different data types. this is a fine example for syntactic salt: the compiler could work without it but makes writing bad programs more difficult.
(1997-07-01)