RAMIFICATION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ramification mean? 

• RAMIFICATION (noun)
  The noun RAMIFICATION has 4 senses:

1. the act of branching out or dividing into branches

2. a part of a forked or branching shape

3. a development that complicates a situation

4. an arrangement of branching parts

  Familiarity information: RAMIFICATION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RAMIFICATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of branching out or dividing into branches

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

branching; fork; forking; ramification

Hypernyms ("ramification" is a kind of...):

division (the act or process of dividing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ramification"):

bifurcation (the act of splitting into two branches)

trifurcation (the act of splitting into three branches)

divarication (branching at a wide angle)

fibrillation (act or process of forming fibrils)

Derivation:

ramify (divide into two or more branches so as to form a fork)

ramify (grow and send out branches or branch-like structures)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A part of a forked or branching shape

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Synonyms:

branch; leg; ramification

Context example:

he broke off one of the branches

Hypernyms ("ramification" is a kind of...):

subfigure (a figure that is a part of another figure)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ramification"):

bifurcation (a bifurcating branch (one or both of them))

brachium ((biology) a branching or armlike part of an animal)

crotch; fork (the region of the angle formed by the junction of two branches)

Holonyms ("ramification" is a part of...):

forking; furcation (the place where something divides into branches)

Derivation:

ramify (divide into two or more branches so as to form a fork)

ramify (grow and send out branches or branch-like structures)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A development that complicates a situation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

complication; ramification

Context example:

the court's decision had many unforeseen ramifications

Hypernyms ("ramification" is a kind of...):

development (a recent event that has some relevance for the present situation)

Derivation:

ramify (have or develop complicating consequences)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An arrangement of branching parts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("ramification" is a kind of...):

arrangement; placement (the spatial property of the way in which something is placed)

Derivation:

ramify (divide into two or more branches so as to form a fork)

ramify (grow and send out branches or branch-like structures)

 Context examples 

Providing accurate information about metabolizable energy (ME) content-calories-of foods is important for reliable food labeling and has health ramifications.

(Going Nuts Over Calories, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

Legal matters will favor you and, due to the eclipse December 25, appear to have long-term ramifications.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

My ramifications stretch out into many sections of society, but never, I am happy to say, into amateur sport, which is the best and soundest thing in England.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A disorder characterized by the presence of one or more nonbizarre delusions that persist for at least 1 month; the delusion(s) are not due to schizophrenia or a mood disorder, and do not impair psychosocial functioning apart from the ramifications of the delusion(s).

(Delusional Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)

The none too savory ramifications by which Ella Kaye, the newspaper woman, played Madame de Maintenon to his weakness and sent him to sea in a yacht, were common knowledge to the turgid journalism of 1902.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)