Skip to content
OneKitly

alignment

nounattested in dialogue

  • Canada//əˈlaɪn.mənt//
  • Australia//əˈlɑen.mənt//
  • New Zealand//əˈlaɪn.mənt//
  • New Zealand/[əˈlɑe̯n.mənt]/

An arrangement of items in a line.

noun

  1. 1

    An arrangement of items in a line.

  2. 2

    The process of adjusting a mechanism such that its parts are aligned; the condition of having its parts so adjusted.

  3. 3

    An alliance of factions.

  4. 4

    The goals and values of an artificial intelligence, considered relative to human ethical standards.

    the alignment problem

    the alignment tax

    It turns out that there’s little overlap between the communities concerned primarily with such short-term risks and those who worry more about longer-term alignment risks.

    The issue of chatbot responses that veer into strange territory is widely known among researchers. In an interview last week, Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, said improving what's known as "alignment" — how the responses safely reflect a user's will — was "one of these must-solve problems."

  5. 5

    One of a set number of moral positions or philosophies a character can take.

    an alignment chart

  6. 6

    The conjunction of two celestial objects.

  7. 7

    The precise route or course taken by a linear way (road, railway, footpath, etc.) between two points.

  8. 8

    A way of arranging DNA, RNA or protein sequences in order to identify regions of similarity.

  9. 9

    A ground plan of a canal or road.

Etymology

From French alignement, by surface analysis, align + -ment.

Forms

plural
alignments
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).