Määritteinä

Määritteinä is a Finnish grammatical form meaning “as defined” and is used to indicate that certain terms or concepts are being understood in a defined sense within the text. It is the plural essive form of the participle related to the verb määritellä (to define), and it helps signal that the items it accompanies are defined elsewhere or in a specific way in the document.

In practice, määritteinä appears in formal writing such as dictionaries, glossaries, legal texts, and scientific articles when listing several terms that are defined together. The essive case expresses a temporary state or role, so määritteinä conveys that the items are being referred to in the role or sense in which they have been defined in the present context. This form thereby links a list of terms to their shared, defined meaning.

Määritteinä is related to other Finnish forms such as määriteltynä (singular essive, “as defined”) and to the broader concept of defining terminology in texts. Because it is a specialized, formal construction, it is more common in academic or legal language than in everyday conversation. When choosing between related forms, writers consider number (singular vs. plural) and the stylistic conventions of the text.

See also: määritelmä, määritelty, essiv.