envelope

  1. Noun.  A paper or cardboard wrapper used to enclose small, flat items, especially letters, for mailing.
  2. Noun.  Something that envelops; a wrapping.
  3. Noun.  A bag containing the lifting gas of a balloon or airship; fabric that encloses the gas-bags of an airship.
  4. Noun.  (geometry) A mathematical curve, surface, or higher-dimensional object that is the tangent to a given family of lines, curves, surfaces, or higher-dimensional objects.
  5. Noun.  (electronics) A curve that bounds another curve or set of curves, as the modulation envelope of an amplitude-modulated carrier wave in electronics.
  6. Noun.  (music) The shape of a sound, which may be controlled by a synthesizer or sampler.
  7. Noun.  (computing) The information used for routing an email that is transmitted with the email but not part of its contents.
  8. Noun.  (biology) An enclosing structure or cover, such as a membrane.
  9. Noun.  (engineering) The set of limitations within which a technological system can perform safely and effectively.

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This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.