ramification

From Middle French ramification, or its source, Latin ramificō.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɹæmɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌɹæməfəˈkeɪʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

ramification (countable and uncountable, plural ramifications)

1. (botany, anatomy, also figurative) A branching-out, the act or result of developing branches; specifically the divergence of the stem and limbs of a plant into smaller ones, or of similar developments in blood vessels, anatomical structures etc.
   • 1829, Lincoln Phelps, Familiar Lectures on Botany, page 179:

     The character of trees may be studied to advantage […] in winter, when the forms of the ramification can be seen in the naked boughs […]

   • 1856, Neil Arnott, Isaac Hayes, Elements of Physics, pages 414–5:

     From the left chamber or ventricle of the strong muscular mass, the heart, a large tube arises, called the aorta; and by a continued division or ramification, opens a way for the bright scarlet blood to the very minutest part of the living frame […]

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XLVIII, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     […] we may be sure that Becky and Briggs looked out those august names in the Peerage, and followed the noble races up through all the ramifications of the family tree.

   • 1904 August, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC:

     “You live in a different world to me, Mr. Overton—a sweeter and healthier one. 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. […]

   • 1919, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The God of Tarzan”, in Jungle Tales of Tarzan, pages 92–93:

     Quite unexpectedly an idea popped into Tarzan's head. In following out the many ramifications of the dictionary definition of God he had come upon the word create—“to cause to come into existence; to form out of nothing.”

2. (figurative, often in the plural) An offshoot of a decision, fact etc.; a consequence or implication, especially one which complicates a situation.
   • 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter X, in Rob Roy. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 272:

     The treachery of some of the Jacobite agents (Rashleigh among the rest), and the arrest of others, had made George the First's Government acquainted with the extensive ramifications of a conspiracy long prepared, and which at last exploded prematurely […]

   • 1890, William Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out‎:

     What, then, is my Scheme? It is a very simple one, although in its ramifications and extensions it embraces the whole world.

   • 1910 October, Jack London, chapter VII, in Burning Daylight, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC:

     He stirred up a bigger muss than he had anticipated, and even he was astounded at the wide ramifications of the struggle and at the unexpected and incongruous interests that were drawn into it.

   • 2009 July 15, Chris Power, “A brief survey of the short story part 19: Ray Bradbury”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     But most often and memorably his work falls into that territory best summed up as speculative fiction, with a particular emphasis on dystopian futures and the existential ramifications of space exploration.

   • 2022 November 30, Nick Brodrick, “Pride and innovation shine at St Pancras”, in RAIL, number 971, page 67:

     The advent of COVID passports, so soon after increased check-in bureaucracy post-Brexit, brought major logistical ramifications to St Pancras International, of a kind unseen at any other major station in Britain.

3. (mathematics) An arrangement of branches.

• ramify

• “ramification”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “ramification”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

From ramifier +‎ -ification.

• IPA^(key): /ʁa.mi.fi.ka.sjɔ̃/

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ramification f (plural ramifications)

1. a (criminal) network, offshoots of an (often clandestine) organization
2. ramification, implication
3. (botany, anatomy) ramification

• “ramification”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

ramification f (plural ramifications)

1. division into branches
   • 1570, Jean Canappe, Tables anatomiques du corps humain universel: soit de l'homme, ou de la femme, page 24:

     De laquelle nous donnerons la divarication, cestadire ramification, ou division en ses rameaux, quand nous traicterons du foye.

     From which [from the vein] we get separating out, that is to say ramification, or division into several branches, when we are talking about the liver.

• → English: ramification
• French: ramification