• (RP) IPA: /ˈləʊkl̩/
  • (America) enPR: lōk′əl, IPA: /ˈloʊkl̩/


  1. From or in a nearby location.
    We prefer local produce.
  2. (computing, of a variable or identifier) Having limited scope (either lexical or dynamic); only being accessible within a certain portion of a program.
  3. (mathematics, not comparable, of a condition or state) Applying to each point in a space rather than the space as a whole.
  4. (medicine) Of or pertaining to a restricted part of an organism.
    The patient didn't want to be sedated, so we applied only local anesthesia.
  5. Descended from an indigenous population.
    Hawaiian Pidgin is spoken by the local population.
Synonyms Antonyms Translations Translations
  • French: local
  • Portuguese: local
  • Russian: лока́льный
  • Portuguese: local
  • Russian: лока́льный
Translations Noun

local (plural locals)

  1. A person who lives near a given place.
    It's easy to tell the locals from the tourists.
  2. A branch of a nationwide organization such as a trade union.
    I'm in the TWU, too. Local 6.
  3. (rail transport, chiefly, US) A train that stops at all, or almost all, stations between its origin and destination, including very small ones.
    The expresses skipped my station, so I had to take a local.
  4. (British) One's nearest or regularly frequented public house or bar.
    I got barred from my local, so I've started going all the way into town for a drink.
  5. (programming) A locally scoped identifier.
    Functional programming languages usually don't allow changing the immediate value of locals once they've been initialized, unless they're explicitly marked as being mutable.
  6. (US, slang, journalism) An item of news relating to the place where the newspaper is published.
  7. (colloquial, medicine) Clipping of local anesthetic#English|local anesthetic.
    1989, Road House, 39:59:
    Well, Mr. Dalton, you may add nine staples to your dossier of thirty‐one broken bones, two bullet wounds, nine puncture wounds and four steel screws. That’s an estimate, of course. I’ll give you a local.
Synonyms Antonyms Translations
  • Italian: locale
  • Portuguese: habitante local, morador local
  • Russian: ме́стный
  • Spanish: vecino, vecina, lugareño
Translations Translations Translations Related terms

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