Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Mathematics Intersecting at or forming right angles.
- adjective Being at right angles to the horizontal; vertical. synonym: vertical.
- adjective Of or relating to a style of English Gothic architecture of the 1300s and 1400s, characterized by emphasis of the vertical element.
- adverb In a perpendicular position.
- noun Mathematics A line or plane perpendicular to a given line or plane.
- noun A perpendicular position.
- noun A device, such as a plumb line, that is used in marking the vertical from a given point.
- noun A vertical or nearly vertical line or plane.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Perfectly vertical; at right angles with the plane of the horizon; passing (if extended through the center of the earth; coinciding with the direction of gravity.
- In geometry, meeting a given line or surface (to which it is said to be perpendicular) at right angles.
- In zoology, forming a right angle with the longitudinal or latitudinal axis of the body: as, a perpendicular head; epimeron perpendicular, etc.
- noun A line at right angles to the plane of the horizon; a line that coincides in direction with a radius of the earth or with the direction of gravity.
- noun 2. In geometry, a line that meets another line or a place at right angles, or makes equal angles with it on every side.
- noun In gunnery, a small instrument for finding the center-line of a piece of ordnance, in the operation of pointing it at an object; a gunner's level.
- noun In ship-building, one of the three conventional lines perpendicular to the line of the keel, used as reference lines from which measurements in the fore-and-aft direction are taken.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Exactly upright or vertical; pointing to the zenith; at right angles to the plane of the horizon; extending in a right line from any point toward the center of the earth.
- adjective (Geom.) At right angles to a given line or surface.
- adjective (Arch.) a name given to the latest variety of English Gothic architecture, which prevailed from the close of the 14th century to the early part of the 16th; -- probably so called from the vertical style of its window mullions.
- noun A line at right angles to the plane of the horizon; a vertical line or direction.
- noun (Geom.) A line or plane falling at right angles on another line or surface, or making equal angles with it on each side.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective geometry At or forming a
right angle (to). - noun geometry A
line orplane that is perpendicular to another. - noun A
device such as aplumb line that is used in making or marking a perpendicular line.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a straight line at right angles to another line
- noun a cord from which a metal weight is suspended pointing directly to the earth's center of gravity; used to determine the vertical from a given point
- adjective at right angles to the plane of the horizon or a base line
- adjective intersecting at or forming right angles
- noun a Gothic style in 14th and 15th century England; characterized by vertical lines and a four-centered (Tudor) arch and fan vaulting
- noun an extremely steep face
- adjective extremely steep
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In fixing a barometer for observation, it is indispensable that it be hung in a perpendicular position, seeing that it is the _perpendicular distance_ between the surface of the mercury in the cistern and the top of the column which is the true height of the barometer.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 "Banks" to "Bassoon" Various
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Shouldn't she be resting instead of dashing to-and-fro, drying the raindrops that land in perpendicular plop-plop!
Alps 2010
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Shouldn't she be resting instead of dashing to-and-fro, drying the raindrops that land in perpendicular plop-plop!
Cafés 2010
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The only corkscrew she had was a solid wooden-handled one with the screw sticking out perpendicular from the center (like a letter “T”).
Embarassing moments in bottle opening - The Rabbit and Benito's blog | Dr Vino's wine blog 2009
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Napping on the couch is not a long-term solution, but the couch does come with a built-in perpendicular, which the bed does not, so that's good.
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Work done in this way is often called perpendicular chiseling, Fig. 72.
Handwork in Wood William Noyes
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The Federal gun-boats have iron-plated sides placed in perpendicular bars on the timbers, and when in action no one appears on deck bu the signalmen, the vessels being steered from a shotproof pilot-house forwards.
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By holding these rules in different positions, the children readily became familiar with the meaning and practical application of the terms perpendicular, horizontal, and oblique.
Popular Education For the use of Parents and Teachers, and for Young Persons of Both Sexes Ira Mayhew 1854
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White river; which rose, perhaps, from one to two hundred feet in perpendicular height, and sixty or eighty yards asunder.
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"Beach!" retorted Barnstable; "do you call a perpendicular rock of a hundred feet in height a beach!"
The Pilot James Fenimore Cooper 1820
treeseed commented on the word perpendicular
This is the 1st "big" word my dad taught me.
I would sit up on his work bench and watch him making jigs and tying flies for his fishing hobby. Instead of attempting conversation with a child he would grill me on words and I would have to parrot them back with their meanings for later exhibition in front of "company." Upon reflection, kind of odd but I loved it and I still love words. So, thanks, Dad.
February 10, 2008
seanahan commented on the word perpendicular
Sounds like a great Wordie upbringing, or wordolesence.
February 13, 2008