resultant

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   caused by or following from the thing just described

   The government weighed the use of force against the resultant loss of life.

2. 2
   noun

   a force, vector, or other quantity obtained by combining two or more component quantities

   The engineer calculated the resultant of the two forces acting on the bridge.

From Latin resultans, the present participle of resultare, 'to spring back or result.' Resultare is an intensive form of resilire, built from re-, 'back,' and salire, 'to leap.' The mathematical noun developed from the idea of a quantity resulting from several components.

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