Something that constrains; a restriction. / An irresistible force or compulsion. / The repression of one's feelings. / (mathematics) A condition that a solution to an optimization problem must satisfy.

plural of constraint

(archaic) constraining; compulsory

(economics) The condition that constrains expenditure to income (for a person) or the value of exports to imports (for a state)

(physics, classical mechanics) One of the equations/identities which define a variety within the configuration space, such that the state of the physical system being described is constrained to correspond only to points within that variety.

(statistics, computer science) a cluster of data points in a set conforming to the must-link and cannot-link constraints specified for each pair of data points

plural of budget constraint

plural of constraint cluster

plural of holonomic constraint

(phonology) In Optimality Theory, universal features that languages prefer to keep unviolated.