ə̇ˈdishən, ēˈ- noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle French & Medieval Latin; Middle French edition, from Medieval Latin edition-, editio, from Latin, act of bringing forth, from editus (past participle of edere to bring forth, produce, proclaim, publish, from e- + -dere to put or -dere, from dare to give) + -ion-, -io -ion — more at do , date
1. obsolete
a. : the action of publishing
b. : the action or result of bringing into existence:
(1) : extraction , origin
(2) : creation
can we treat the absolute edition of the world as a legitimate hypothesis? — William James
2. : the form in which a literary work (as an edited text) or group of works (as the works of several poets) is published: as
a. : the whole number of bound copies printed from a single setting of type or from plates made therefrom
b. : printing
c. : a printed production the same as an earlier one in title but with substantial changes in or additions to the text
d. : a set of copies differing in some way from others of the same published text
a thumb-indexed edition
an india-paper edition
e. : an arbitrarily limited number of copies or complete sheets of an impression
3.
a. : one of the forms in which something is issued or otherwise presented to the public
most of the standard editions of the older music contain few staccato marks — Warwick Braithwaite
the Spanish Civil War edition of the Goya etchings — H.L.Matthews
this year's edition of the annual charity ball
b. : the whole number of articles of one style put out at one time
a limited edition of custom-made radiophonographs
specifically : the number of stamps or of items of a particular piece of postal stationery in one issue
c. : something that resembles another in its main characteristics : reproduction , copy , version
the Southern Uplands form a softer and kindlier edition of the Highlands — L.D.Stamp
her younger sister, a weaker edition of Octavie — Dorothy C. Fisher
4. : all the copies printed in a single pressrun of a newspaper — see city edition , final edition , first edition , mail edition