Cartesian coordinate system

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A coordinate system in which the coordinates of a point are its distances from a set of perpendicular lines that intersect at an origin, such as two lines in a plane or three in space.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a coordinate system for which the coordinates of a point are its distances from a set perpendicular lines that intersect at the origin of the system