lokales

Lokales is a German term that can function as the inflected form of the adjective lokal, meaning local. It appears most often in two contexts: in mathematics and science, where lokales modifies a noun such as Maximum or Gebiet to denote a property or region that holds only in a neighborhood of a point; and as a noun in media usage, where Lokales refers to the local news section of a newspaper or, more generally, to the local area or local venues when treated as a noun.

Etymology and form: The word derives from the Latin-based adjective lokal, through German usage. As an adjective, lokales takes endings depending on gender, case, and article; commonly seen in phrases such as lokales Maximum (local maximum) or lokale Eigenschaften (local properties). When used as a noun in journalism, Lokales can serve as a section heading, and in everyday speech, das Lokale can mean a local establishment or the local area.

Usage notes: In scientific writing, lokales is used with neuter nouns to convey locality within a neighborhood of a point or region. In journalism, the capitalized form Lokales denotes the section of a newspaper focusing on local events. In ordinary language, Lokale (plural) can refer to local establishments or venues, while das Lokale (singular) denotes the local area or scene depending on context.

See also: Local, locality, locale in computing, and related terms in German such as örtlich and lokalität.