Dictionary entry

Internal

Webster's Dictionary 1913

In‐tern″al (?), a. [L. internus; akin to interior. See Interior.]

1. Inward; interior; being within any limit or surface; inclosed; — opposed to external; as, the internal parts of a body, or of the earth.

2. Derived from, or dependent on, the thing itself; inherent; as, the internal evidence of the divine origin of the Scriptures.

3. Pertaining to its own affairs or interests; especially, (said of a country) domestic, as opposed to foreign; as, internal trade; internal troubles or war.

4. Pertaining to the inner being or the heart; spiritual.

With our Savior, internal purity is everything. Paley.

5. Intrinsic; inherent; real.

The internal rectitude of our actions in the sight of God. Rogers.

6. (Anat.) Lying toward the mesial plane; mesial.

Internal angle(Geom.), an interior angle. See under Interior. — Internal gear(Mach.), a gear in which the teeth project inward from the rim instead of outward.

Syn. — Inner; interior; inward; inland; inside.