BEARING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does bearing mean? 

• BEARING (noun)
  The noun BEARING has 6 senses:

1. relevant relation or interconnection

2. the direction or path along which something moves or along which it lies

3. dignified manner or conduct

4. characteristic way of bearing one's body

5. heraldry consisting of a design or image depicted on a shield

6. a rotating support placed between moving parts to allow them to move easily

  Familiarity information: BEARING used as a noun is common.

• BEARING (adjective)
  The adjective BEARING has 1 sense:

1. (of a structural member) withstanding a weight or strain

  Familiarity information: BEARING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BEARING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Relevant relation or interconnection

Classified under:

Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas

Context example:

those issues have no bearing on our situation

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

relatedness (a particular manner of connectedness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The direction or path along which something moves or along which it lies

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

aim; bearing; heading

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

direction; way (a line leading to a place or point)

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

tack (the heading or position of a vessel relative to the trim of its sails)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Dignified manner or conduct

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

bearing; comportment; mien; presence

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

manner; personal manner (a way of acting or behaving)

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

dignity; gravitas; lordliness (formality in bearing and appearance)

Derivation:

bear (behave in a certain manner)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Characteristic way of bearing one's body

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

bearing; carriage; posture

Context example:

stood with good posture

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

bodily property (an attribute of the body)

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

manner of walking; walk (manner of walking)

slouch (a stooping carriage in standing and walking)

gracefulness (beautiful carriage)

awkwardness; clumsiness (the carriage of someone whose movements and posture are ungainly or inelegant)

Derivation:

bear (support or hold in a certain manner)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Heraldry consisting of a design or image depicted on a shield

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

armorial bearing; bearing; charge; heraldic bearing

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

heraldry (emblem indicating the right of a person to bear arms)

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

roundel ((heraldry) a charge in the shape of a filled circle)

annulet ((heraldry) a charge in the shape of a small ring)

chevron (an inverted V-shaped charge)

fleur-de-lis; fleur-de-lys ((heraldry) charge consisting of a conventionalized representation of an iris)

ordinary ((heraldry) any of several conventional figures used on shields)

Sense 6

Meaning:

A rotating support placed between moving parts to allow them to move easily

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

support (any device that bears the weight of another thing)

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

ball bearing; needle bearing; roller bearing (bearings containing small metal balls)

fifth wheel (a steering bearing that enables the front axle of a horse-drawn wagon to rotate)

journal bearing (the bearing of a journal)

thrust bearing (a bearing designed to take thrusts parallel to the axis of revolution)

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

rotating mechanism (a mechanism that rotates)

• BEARING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(of a structural member) withstanding a weight or strain

Similar:

load-bearing; supporting (capable of bearing a structural load)

Antonym:

nonbearing ((of a structural member) supporting no vertical weight other than its own)

 Context examples 

It is this compound that resembles the cyanide-bearing compounds the team discovered in meteorites.

(Cyanide Compounds Discovered in Meteorites May Hold Clues to the Origin of Life, NASA)

The team suspects that these hydroxyl groups exist globally across the asteroid in water-bearing clay minerals, meaning that at some point, Bennu’s rocky material interacted with water.

(NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Discovers Water on Asteroid, NASA)

Rocks exposed there contain evidence for an iron-bearing smectite - called nontronite — as well as for montmorillonite.

(Aluminum-Bearing Site on Mars Draws NASA Visitor, NASA)

The key to determining how U. mongoliensis is related to other seed plants lies in understanding its strange seed-bearing capsules.

(Paleontologists find fossil relative of Ginkgo biloba, NSF)

This reduced iron-bearing clay can kill some strains of bacteria under the laboratory conditions used, including bacteria grown as biofilms, which can be particularly challenging to treat.

(Clay fights MRSA, other 'superbugs' in wounds, National Science Foundation)

The newly discovered molecules, condensed onto the ice grains, were determined to be nitrogen- and oxygen-bearing compounds.

(New Organic Compounds Found in Enceladus Ice Grains, NASA)

However, if water release is the cause of these ejection events, then this phenomenon would be specific to asteroids that contain water-bearing minerals, like Bennu.

(NASA's OSIRIS-REx Explains Bennu Mystery Particles, NASA)

Curiosity rover has confirmed that the region on Mars it's exploring, called the "clay-bearing unit," is well deserving of its name.

(Curiosity Mars Rover Finds a Clay Cache, NASA)

The pollen bearing portion of a stamen.

(Anther, Food and Drug Administration)

Upon administration, this vaccine may stimulate anti-tumoral cytotoxic T-cell and antibody responses to melanoma cells bearing shared melanoma antigens such as MelanA/MART-1, gp100, MAGE3, resulting in tumor cell lysis.

(Autologous Dendritic Cell-Allogeneic Melanoma Tumor Cell Lysate Vaccine, NCI Thesaurus)