Definition of "internal" []

• Of, relating to, or located within the limits or surface; inner. (adjective)
• Residing in or dependent on essential nature; intrinsic: the internal contradictions of the theory. (adjective)
• Located, acting, or effective within the body. (adjective)
• Of or relating to mental or spiritual nature: "An internal sense of righteousness dwindles into an external concern for reputation” ( A.R. Gurney, Jr.) (adjective)
• Of or relating to the domestic affairs of a nation, group, or business. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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• "It is customary to distinguish the internal from the external work of art: the terminology seems here to be infelicitous, for the work of art (the aesthetic work) is always _internal_; and that which is called _external_ is no longer a work of art."
• "Moreover, it has appeared that different species show a tendency to variability in special directions, and probably in different degrees, and that at any rate Mr. Darwin himself concedes the existence of an internal barrier to change when he credits the goose with "a singularly inflexible organization;" also, that he admits the presence of an _internal_ proclivity to change when he speaks of "a whole organization seeming to have become plastic, and tending to depart from the parental type.""