Meaning

• Not closed

• Not physically drawn together, closed, folded or contracted; extended

  "an open hand; an open flower"

• Actively conducting or prepared to conduct business.

  "Banks are not open on bank holidays."

• Receptive.

  "I am open to new ideas."

• Public

  "He published an open letter to the governor on a full page of the New York Times."

• Candid, ingenuous, not subtle in character.

  "The man is an open book."

• (of a formula) Having a free variable.

• (of a set) Which is part of a predefined collection of subsets of X, that defines a topological space on X.

• (of a walk) Whose first and last vertices are different.

• (of a file, document, etc.) In current use; mapped to part of memory.

  "I couldn't save my changes because another user had the same file open."

• Not fulfilled.

  "I've got open orders for as many containers of red durum as you can get me."

• Not settled or adjusted; not decided or determined; not closed or withdrawn from consideration.

  "an open question"

• (stringed instruments) Of a note, played without pressing the string against the fingerboard.

• (wind instruments) Of a note, played without closing any finger-hole, key or valve.

• Not of a quality to prevent communication, as by closing waterways, blocking roads, etc.; hence, not frosty or inclement; mild; used of the weather or the climate.

  "an open winter"

• (Of correspondence) Written or sent with the intention that it may made public or referred to at any trial, rather than by way of confidential private negotiation for a settlement. (Opposite of "without prejudice")

  "You will observe that this is an open letter and we reserve the right to mention it to the judge should the matter come to trial."

• Uttered with a relatively wide opening of the articulating organs; said of vowels.

• Uttered, as a consonant, with the oral passage simply narrowed without closure.

• (of a syllable) That ends in a vowel; not having a coda.

• Made public, usable with a free licence and without proprietary components.

• Resulting from an incision, puncture or any other process by which the skin no longer protects an internal part of the body.