{
  "id": "means.method",
  "term": "means",
  "sense": "method",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 10,
  "arena": "language",
  "domain": "everyday",
  "style": null,
  "definition": "a way or tool to do something",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "way.method",
      "tools.tool"
    ],
    "interaction": "the way and tool together do something",
    "novel_properties": [
      "purposeful direction",
      "combined utility",
      "goal‑oriented function"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The Large Hadron Collider accelerates particles to 99.999999% of light speed using superconducting electromagnets cooled by liquid helium.",
      "domain": "physics"
    },
    {
      "text": "Farmers in the Ifugao highlands maintain rice terraces by hand-cutting drainage channels, a practice sustained for over 2,000 years.",
      "domain": "institutions"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Python programming language uses garbage collection to automatically reclaim memory no longer in use by running programs.",
      "domain": "computing"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "way.method",
      "note": "is-a",
      "type": "is-a"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [
    "heart.organ"
  ],
  "forms": [
    "means"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "openrouter:openai/gpt-oss-120b",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.6
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-means.method"
}