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Webster 1913 Edition


Orography

O-rog′ra-phy

,
Noun.
[Gr.
ὄρος
, a mountain +
-graphy
.]
That branch of science which treats of mountains and mountain systems; orology;
as, the
orography
of Western Europe
.

Definition 2024


orography

orography

English

Alternative forms

Noun

orography (usually uncountable, plural orographies)

  1. (geomorphology) the scientific study, or a physical description of mountains
    • 1846, Joseph Emerson Worcester, A universal and critical dictionary of the English language: to which are added Walker's Key to the pronunciation of classical and Scripture proper names, much enlarged and improved, and a pronouncing vocabulary of modern geographical names, Boston: Wilkins, Carter, and Company, published 1849, page 501:
      Orography: A description of mountains.
    • 1853, Edward Hitchcock, “The Geology of the Globe”, in Outline of the Geology of the Globe and of the United States in Particular with Sketches of Characteristic American Fossils., Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Company, page 10:
      A knowledge of the Hydrography of a country aids as much in determining its geology as does its Orography, — that is, a description of its mountains.
  2. the orographic features of a region
    • 1911, Africa, article in Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition,
      Morocco was in 1883-1884 the scene of important explorations by de Foucauld, a Frenchman who, disguised as a Jew, crossed and re-crossed the Atlas and supplied the first trustworthy information as to the orography of many parts of the chain.
    • 1995, B. W. Atkinson, Introduction to the fluid mechanics of meso-scale flow fields, in A. Gyr, Franz-S. Rys (editors), Diffusion and Transport of Pollutants in Atmospheric Mesoscale Flow Fields, page 20,
      Most flows actually occur, of course, over non-uniform orography and consequently in numerical models of such flows it is necessary to transform the coordinates so that the equations accurately represent flows in such terrain (Gal-Chen and Somerville 1975).
    • 2006, Austin Woods, Medium-Range Weather Prediction: The European Approach, page 105,
      The independent scientists of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) expressed concerns about how the spectral model would deal with steep mountains. [] It was this work that lead to development of the envelope orography outlined below.

Translations

References

  • OED 2004 (online)