Definify.com

Webster 1828 Edition


Spherical

SPHER'IC

, SPHER'ICAL,
Adj.
[L. sphericus.]
1.
Globular; orbicular; having a surface in every part equally distant from the center; as a spherical body. Drops of water take a spherical form.
2.
Planetary; relating to the orbs of the planets. We make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon and the stars, as if we were villains by spherical predominance.

Definition 2024


spherical

spherical

English

Alternative forms

Adjective

spherical (comparative more spherical, superlative most spherical)

  1. (geometry) Shaped like a sphere.
    • 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:
      The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.
  2. (geometry) (no comparative or superlative) Of, or pertaining to, spheres.
  3. (mathematics) Of a coordinate system, specifying the location of a point in a plane by using a radius and two angles.
  4. (astrology) Of or relating to the heavenly orbs, or to the sphere or spheres in which, according to ancient astronomy and astrology, they were set.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations


Scots

Etymology

From English spherical.

Adjective

spherical

  1. spherical