objective

Research

A concrete, often verb-led statement of what a study sets out to do — more specific than the overall aim.

Sources

1. Merriam-Webster — objective merriam-webster.com accessed 23 September 2026

Merriam-Webster gives the noun as “something toward which effort is directed : an aim, goal, or purpose”, and the adjective as expressing or handling “facts or conditions as perceived without distortion by personal feelings, prejudices, or interpretations”, and “existing outside of the mind”. From Medieval Latin objectīvus; the adjective is first recorded in 1645 and the noun only in 1835. The two senses pull in different directions and a research proposal uses both — the objectives are aims, while objectivity is a claim about method.

Merriam-Webster is cited as the dictionary of record: where an entry defines a word rather than a position, a dictionary is the primary source for it. The research usage above is this lexicon’s own.

Related terms

• Abbreviation
• Abstract
• Abstraction
• Academic Database
• Analysis
• Annotation

From the AJG lexicon archive (July 2026).