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Added 3 October 2026

local

/ˈləʊ.kl̩/ adjective

In Latin: locālis Wiktionary

adjective Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about local at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

From or in a nearby location.
We prefer local produce.
Connected directly to a particular computer, processor, etc.; able to be accessed offline.
local disk drive
Having limited scope (either lexical or dynamic); only accessible within a certain portion of a program.

noun

A person who lives in or near a given place.
It's easy to tell the locals from the tourists.
A branch of a nationwide organization such as a trade union.
I'm in the TWU, too. Local 6.
Clipping of local train.
The expresses skipped my station, so I had to take a local.

adverb

In the local area; within a city, state, country, etc.
It's never been more important to buy local.

Origin

From Middle English local, from Late Latin locālis (“belonging to a place”), possibly also via Old French local; ultimately from Latin locus (“a place”). The ring-theoretic senses derive from Krull, who first referred to Noetherian commutative rings with a unique maximal ideal as "Stellenring" (Stellen (“place”) + ring) in 1938. The term was inspired by algebraic geometry, where local rings encode information about the behavior of curves (surfaces, etc.) at points; hence, describe "local" behavior.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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