means A word or phrase with a fixed meaning, a set period of time, or a condition agreed upon — depending entirely on context.

from From Latin terminus, meaning 'a boundary, limit, or end' — the same root that gave us 'terminate' and 'terminal.' The Romans even had a god named Terminus who guarded property boundaries. The word traveled through Old French terme into English, where it sprouted its many senses: a 'term' is a limit you set on time (a school term, a prison term), a limit on meaning (the precise term for a thing), or a condition in an agreement (the terms of a contract) — every sense circling back to that original idea of a marked-off edge.