local

See also: lo-cal

English

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈləʊkl̩/
• (General American) enPR: lōk′əl, IPA^(key): /ˈloʊkl̩/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊkəl

Adjective

local (comparative more local, superlative most local)

1. From or in a nearby location.

   Holonyms: statal, national, federal, unional, supranational, global

   We prefer local produce.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part. […] Next day she […] tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head. Then, thwarted, the wretched creature went to the police for help; she was versed in the law, and had perhaps spared no pains to keep on good terms with the local constabulary.

   • 2012 December 1, “An internet of airborne things”, in The Economist, volume 405, number 8813, page 3 (Technology Quarterly):

     A farmer could place an order for a new tractor part by text message and pay for it by mobile money-transfer. A supplier many miles away would then take the part to the local matternet station for airborne dispatch via drone.

2. (computing, of a resource) Connected directly to a particular computer, processor, etc.; able to be accessed offline.

   Antonym: remote

   local disk drive

   local file

   The panel shows both local and remote sites.

3. (computing, of a variable or identifier) Having limited scope (either lexical or dynamic); only accessible within a certain portion of a program.

   Antonym: global

4. (mathematics, not comparable, of a condition or property) Applying to or satisfied by substructures understood as "near points;" in particular:
   1. (topology) Satisfied by at least one open neighborhood of every point.

      A Hausdorff space satisfying local compactness need not be (globally) compact!

   2. (topology) Satisfied by arbitrarily small open neighborhoods of every point.
   3. (group theory, of a property of an infinite group) Satisfied by every finitely generated subgroup.
5. (mathematics, not comparable, of a condition or property) Detectable from the behavior of substructures understood to be "near points;" in particular:
   1. (algebra, algebraic geometry, of a property $P$ of a ring $R$ (or an $R$-module $M$)) Such that the following conditions are equivalent: (1) $P$ holds for $R$ ($M$); (2) $P$ holds for the localization $R_{\mathfrak {p}}$ ($M_{\mathfrak {p}}$) for all prime ideals ${\mathfrak {p}}$ of $R$; (3) $P$ holds for the localization $R_{\mathfrak {m}}$ ($M_{\mathfrak {m}}$) for all maximal ideals ${\mathfrak {m}}$ of $R$.

      Flatness is a local property.

   2. (group theory, of a property of a finite group) Detectable from the behavior of the normalizers of the nontrivial p-subgroups.
7. (algebra, of a ring) Having a unique maximal (left) ideal.
8. (medicine) Of or pertaining to a restricted part of an organism.

   Synonym: topical

   local lesion

   The patient didn't want to be sedated, so we applied only local anesthesia.

9. Descended from an indigenous population.

   Hawaiian Pidgin is spoken by the local population.

Translations

of a nearby location

• Albanian: lokal (sq)
• Arabic: مَحَلِّيّ (maḥalliyy)
• Armenian: տեղական (hy) (teġakan)
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܕܘܼܟܬܵܢܵܝܵܐ m (duktānāyā)
• Azerbaijani: yerli (az), məhəlli
• Belarusian: ме́сны (mjésny), мясцо́вы (mjascóvy), тутэ́йшы (tutéjšy), лака́льны (lakálʹny), ляка́льны (ljakálʹny)
• Bengali: আঞ্চলিক (bn) (ancolik)
• Bulgarian: ме́стен (bg) (mésten), лока́лен (bg) (lokálen)
• Catalan: local (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 本地 (bun² dei⁶)

  Mandarin: 本地 (zh) (běndì), 當地／当地 (zh) (dāngdì)

• Cornish: leel
• Czech: místní (cs)
• Danish: lokal
• Dutch: lokaal (nl), plaatselijk (nl)
• Esperanto: loka
• Estonian: kohalik, lokaalne (et)
• Fala: local
• Finnish: paikallinen (fi), lähi- (fi)
• French: local (fr)
• Galician: local, do país
• Georgian: ადგილობრივი (adgilobrivi)
• German: lokal (de), örtlich (de)
• Greek: τοπικός (el) (topikós)

  Ancient: τοπικός (topikós), ἔντοπος (éntopos)

• Hebrew: מְקוֹמִי (he) (m'komí)
• Hindi: स्थानीय (hi) (sthānīya), क्षेत्रीय (kṣetrīya)
• Hungarian: helyi (hu)
• Icelandic: staðbundinn (is)
• Ido: lokala (io)
• Irish: logánta, áitiúil
• Italian: locale (it)
• Japanese: 現地 (ja) (げんち, genchi)
• Kazakh: жергілікті (jergılıktı)
• Korean: 지방의 (ko) (jibang'ui)
• Kyrgyz: жергиликтүү (ky) (jergiliktüü)
• Latin: locālis
• Latvian: vietējs, lokāls
• Lithuanian: vietinis (lt), lokalinis
• Luxembourgish: lokal
• Macedonian: ме́стен (mésten), ло́кален (lókalen)
• Malay: setempat, lokal, tempatan (ms)
• Malayalam: തദ്ദേശ (taddēśa)
• Maori: ā-rohe, tata, paetata
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lokal (no)

• Old English: stōwlīċ
• Persian: محلی (fa) (mahalli)
• Polish: lokalny (pl), miejscowy (pl), tutejszy (pl)
• Portuguese: local (pt)
• Romanian: local (ro)
• Russian: ме́стный (ru) (méstnyj), лока́льный (ru) (lokálʹnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: ionadail
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ме̏снӣ, мје̏снӣ, ло̀ка̄лан

  Roman: mȅsnī (sh), mjȅsnī (sh), lòkālan (sh)

• Slovak: miestny
• Slovene: lokalen, krajeven
• Spanish: local (es), lugareño (es) m
• Swedish: lokal (sv)
• Tagalog: pampook, pandito
• Tajik: маҳаллӣ (tg) (mahalli)
• Thai: ส่วนท้องถิ่น (sùan-tóng-tìn), ท้องถิ่น (th) (tóng-tìn)
• Turkish: yerel (tr), lokal (tr), mahallî (tr), yöresel (tr), mevzii (tr)
• Ukrainian: місце́вий (uk) (miscévyj), туте́шній (tutéšnij), лока́льний (lokálʹnyj)
• Uzbek: mahalliy (uz)
• Vietnamese: địa phương (vi) (地方)
• Welsh: lleol (cy)
• Yiddish: היגע (hige), לאָקאַל (lokal), אָרטיק (ortik)

computing: connected directly

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 本地 (zh) (běndì)

computing: having limited scope

• Catalan: local (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 局部 (zh) (júbù)

• Czech: lokální (cs)
• Finnish: paikallinen (fi)
• French: local (fr)
• Greek: τοπικός (el) (topikós)
• Irish: logánta, áitiúil
• Malay: setempat, lokal
• Maori: paetata
• Polish: lokalny (pl) m
• Portuguese: local (pt)
• Russian: лока́льный (ru) (lokálʹnyj)
• Swedish: lokal (sv)

math: applying to a limited space

• Finnish: likimääräinen (fi)
• Icelandic: staðbundinn (is) m, stað- (is)
• Japanese: 局所 (ja) (きょくしょ, kyokusho)
• Malay: setempat, lokal
• Polish: lokalny (pl)
• Portuguese: local (pt)
• Russian: лока́льный (ru) (lokálʹnyj)

medicine: of or pertaining to a restricted part of an organism

• Catalan: local (ca)
• Finnish: paikallinen (fi), paikallis- (fi)
• French: local (fr)
• Galician: local
• Hungarian: helyi (hu)
• Italian: locale (it)
• Latin: localis
• Malay: setempat, lokal
• Portuguese: local (pt)
• Romanian: local (ro)
• Russian: ме́стный (ru) (méstnyj), лока́льный (ru) (lokálʹnyj)
• Spanish: local (es)
• Swedish: lokal (sv)

Noun

local (plural locals)

1. A person who lives near a given place.

   It's easy to tell the locals from the tourists.

   • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 66:

     Taunton station is busy - even more so when the inbound working of my Bristol train arrives, laden with the usual mix of 'staycationers' and locals.

2. A branch of a nationwide organization such as a trade union.

   I'm in the TWU, too. Local 6.

3. (rail transport) Clipping of local train.

   The expresses skipped my station, so I had to take a local.

   Synonym: stopper

   Antonyms: fast, express

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.

   • 2010, “Nothing”, in Science & Faith, performed by The Script:

     As they take me to my local down the street.

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.

   • 2012, Cesar Otero, Rob Larsen, Professional jQuery, page 25:

     Globals are visible anywhere in your application, whereas locals are visible only in the function in which they're declared.

6. (US, slang, journalism) An item of news relating to the place where the newspaper is published.
7. (colloquial, medicine) Clipping of local anesthetic.
   • 1989, Road House, page 39:

     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.

8. (finance) An independent trader who acts for themselves rather than on behalf of investors.

   Synonym: floor trader

   • 2009, R. Stafford Johnson, Bond Evaluation, Selection, and Management, page 316:

     On most futures exchanges, there are two major types of futures traders/members: commission brokers and locals.

9. (fandom slang, derogatory) A Twitter user who is not a part of Stan Twitter.
   • 2018, Max Ghasserani, "Spill The Tea On A Sister Skinny Legend", The Investigator (Green Valley High School, Henderson, NV), October 2018, page 25:

     Her camera roll is filled with pictures and videos of her idol, she doesn't let any of her friends see her account because "no locals allowed", […]

   • 2018 October 16, Fergal Smiddy, “The 6 Types of People You Meet on Twitter”, in University Express, University College Cork, Ireland, page 11:

     Locals are characterised by their seeming lack of involvement or ~expertise~ on the platform.

   • 2019, Avin Abelardo, "Deep Dive Into The World Of Troll Twitter Memes", Echoes (University of the Philippines), February/March 2019, page 60:

     Heck, even locals sometimes use GIFs of her when they feel like tweeting with taste.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:local.

Translations

a person who lives near a given place

• Armenian: տեղացի (hy) (teġacʻi)
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܕܘܼܟܬܵܢܵܝܵܐ m (duktānāyā), ܐܲܬܪܵܢܵܝܵܐ m (atrānāyā)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 本地人 (bun² dei⁶ jan⁴)

  Mandarin: 本地人 (zh) (běndìrén)

• Dutch: plaatselijke bewoner
• Esperanto: lokano
• Finnish: paikkakuntalainen (fi)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Ortsmann m
• Greek: ντόπιος (el) m (ntópios)

  Ancient Greek: ἐγχώριος m (enkhṓrios)

• Hindi: स्थानीय (hi) (sthānīya), क्षेत्रीय (kṣetrīya)
• Hungarian: helyi (hu), helybeli (hu)
• Icelandic: heimamaður m
• Italian: locale (it)
• Macedonian: ме́штанин m (méštanin)
• Polish: miejscowy (pl) m, miejscowa (pl) f, tutejszy (pl) m, tutejsza f
• Portuguese: habitante local, morador local
• Russian: ме́стный (ru) m (méstnyj), тузе́мец (ru) m (tuzémec)
• Spanish: vecino (es) m, vecina (es) f, lugareño (es) m
• Swedish: lokalinvånare (sv) c, lokalbo (sv) c
• Turkish: yerli (tr), mahalleli (tr)
• Urdu: مقامی
• Yiddish: היגער (higer)

a branch of an organization

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: paikallisyhdistys, paikallisosasto (fi)
• French: section (fr) f
• German: Ortsverband m
• Hindi: शाखा (hi) f (śākhā), मंडल (hi) m (maṇḍal), खंड (hi) m (khaṇḍ)

local train — see local train

(UK) the nearest bar

• Dutch: stamcafé (nl) n, stamkroeg (nl) m or f
• Finnish: paikallinen (fi), lähikuppila
• German: Stammkneipe (de) f, Ortskneipe f

Adverb

local (comparative more local, superlative most local)

1. In the local area; within a city, state, country, etc.

   It's never been more important to buy local.

   • 2016, Vinod K. Jain, Global Strategy: Competing in the Connected Economy, page 122:

     Coca-Cola, for example, shifted its stance, unsuccessfully, between “think global, act global” and “think local, act local” during the tenures of three different CEOs in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Derived terms

Terms derived from local (all parts of speech)

• all politics are local
• all politics is local
• ambilocal
• antilocal
• bilocal
• collocal
• duolocal
• equilocal
• extralocal
• glocal
• hyperlocal
• interlocal
• Kharchia local
• local administrative unit
• local anaesthetic
• local area network
• local attraction
• local authority
• local battery
• local board
• Local Bubble
• local cell
• local circuit
• local class
• local color
• local colour
• local derby
• local exchange carrier
• local-first
• Local Fluff
• local gigantism
• local government
• Local Group
• local hero
• localhost
• Local Interstellar Cloud
• localise
• localish
• localism
• localist
• localite
• localitis
• locality
• localization
• localize
• local lane
• local loop
• locally
• local maximum
• local mean sidereal time
• local minimum
• localness
• local option
• local preacher
• local radio
• local ring
• local sidereal time
• local solar time
• local taxi
• local time
• Local Volume
• localvore
• locavore
• locsiton
• magnetic local time
• matrilocal
• matrilocality
• microlocal
• multilocal
• neolocal
• nonlocal
• patrilocal
• patrilocality
• plurilocal
• quasilocal
• semilocal
• supralocal
• translocal
• ultralocal
• unlocal
• virilocal

 

Related terms

Terms etymologically related to local (all parts of speech)

• locant
• locate
• location
• locative
• locator
• locoregional
• locus

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• colla

Asturian

Adjective

local (epicene, plural locales)

1. Alternative form of llocal

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin locālis, from Latin locus. First attested in 1803.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [luˈkal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [loˈkal]

Adjective

local m or f (masculine and feminine plural locals)

1. local

Derived terms

• localitzar
• localment

Related terms

• lloc
• localitat

Noun

local m (plural locals)

1. property, premises; business, storefront

Further reading

• “local” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “local” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “local” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Chinese

Etymology

From English local.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): lōukǒu

  (Zhuyin): ㄌㄡ ㄎㄡˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): lou¹ kou²

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: lōukǒu
    • Zhuyin: ㄌㄡ ㄎㄡˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: loukǒu
    • Wade–Giles: lou¹-kʻou³
    • Yale: lōu-kǒu
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: lhoukoou
    • Palladius: лоукоу (loukou)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /loʊ̯⁵⁵ kʰoʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: lou¹ kou²
    • Yale: lōu kóu
    • Cantonese Pinyin: lou¹ kou²
    • Guangdong Romanization: lou¹ kou²
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /lou̯⁵⁵ kʰou̯³⁵/

Noun

local

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese or overseas Mandarin) local (people, as opposed to foreigners)

References

• English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese

Fala

Etymology

From Late Latin locālis, from Latin locus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /loˈkal/
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: lo‧cal

Adjective

local (plural locais)

1. local

Noun

local m (plural locais)

1. premises; rooms

References

• Valeš, Miroslav (2021) Diccionariu de A Fala: lagarteiru, mañegu, valverdeñu (web)‎^[1], 2nd edition, Minde, Portugal: CIDLeS, published 2022, →ISBN

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin locālis, from Latin locus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɔ.kal/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

local (feminine locale, masculine plural locaux, feminine plural locales)

1. local

   Antonym: global

Derived terms

• anesthésie locale
• classe locale
• localité
• localisation

Related terms

• lieu
• location

Noun

local m (plural locaux)

1. room

Descendants

• → Danish: lokale
• → Romanian: local
• → Turkish: lokal

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• colla

Galician

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin locālis, from Latin locus.

Adjective

local m or f (plural locais)

1. local

Derived terms

• localmente

Related terms

• localizar

Noun

local m (plural locais)

1. premises; rooms

References

• “local” in DIGALEGO - Dicionario de Galego, Ir Indo 2004, Xunta de Galicia 2013.
• “local”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2024
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “local”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

Ladin

Adjective

local m (feminine singular locala, masculine plural locai, feminine plural locales)

1. local

Lombard

Pronunciation

• (Milanese) IPA^(key): /luˈcaːl/

Adjective

local (plural locai)

1. local

Piedmontese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /luˈkal/

Adjective

local

1. local

Noun

local m

1. room

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin locālis, from Latin locus. Cognate with the inherited lugar.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /loˈkaw/ [loˈkaʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /luˈkal/ [luˈkaɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /luˈkal/ [luˈkaɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /luˈka.li/

• Rhymes: -al, -aw
• Hyphenation: lo‧cal

Adjective

local m or f (plural locais)

1. local

Noun

local m (plural locais)

1. premises, rooms
2. site
3. place, location

Synonyms

• (place, site): lugar, sítio

Derived terms

• localmente

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French local, Late Latin localis. By surface analysis, loc +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /loˈkal/

Adjective

local m or n (feminine singular locală, masculine plural locali, feminine and neuter plural locale)

1. local

Declension

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	local		locală		locali	locale
	definite	localul		locala		localii	localele
genitive- dative	indefinite	local		locale		locali	locale
	definite	localului		localei		localilor	localelor

Related terms

• localitate
• loc
• locație

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin locālis, from Latin locus. Compare the inherited doublet lugar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /loˈkal/ [loˈkal]

• Audio (Venezuela):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: lo‧cal

Adjective

local m or f (masculine and feminine plural locales)

1. local

Derived terms

• anestesia local
• Grupo Local
• localizar
• localmente

 

Noun

local m (plural locales)

1. premises, rooms
2. (Mexico) store or other retail unit in a shopping center

Derived terms

• local de alterne

 

Further reading

• “local”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28