Definitions

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

  • adjective Having the shape of a sphere; globular.
  • adjective Having a shape approximating that of a sphere.
  • adjective Of or relating to a sphere.
  • adjective Of or relating to celestial bodies.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Bounded by or having the form of the surface of a sphere: as, a spherical body; a spherical surface; a spherical shell.
  • Pertaining or relating to a sphere or spheres, or to sphericity: as, a spherical segment or section; spherical trigonometry.
  • Relating to the planets; planetary, in the astrological sense.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having the form of a sphere; like a sphere; globular; orbicular.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to a sphere.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to the heavenly orbs, or to the sphere or spheres in which, according to ancient astronomy and astrology, they were set.
  • adjective etc. See under Angle, Coordinate, etc.
  • adjective that branch of geometry which treats of spherical magnitudes; the doctrine of the sphere, especially of the circles described on its surface.
  • adjective See under Harmonic, a.
  • adjective portion of the surface of a sphere included between two great semicircles having a common diameter.
  • adjective the magnitude of a solid angle. It is measured by the portion within the solid angle of the surface of any sphere whose center is the angular point.
  • adjective portion of the surface of a sphere bounded by the arcs of three or more great circles.
  • adjective the projection of the circles of the sphere upon a plane. See Projection.
  • adjective See under Sector.
  • adjective the segment of a sphere. See under Segment.
  • adjective re on the surface of a sphere, bounded by the arcs of three great circles which intersect each other.
  • adjective See Trigonometry.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective geometry shaped like a sphere
  • adjective geometry (no comparative or superlative) of, or pertaining to, spheres
  • adjective Of or relating to the heavenly orbs, or to the sphere or spheres in which, according to ancient astronomy and astrology, they were set.

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

  • adjective of or relating to spheres or resembling a sphere
  • adjective having the shape of a sphere or ball

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin sphericus, from Ancient Greek σφαιρικός +‎ -al

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word spherical.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Comparing the SEM images of the unknown White particles and Polysiloxane ash, it is obvious that the two are very much different from each other. The unknown white particle is fiber-like while polysiloxane ash is spherical in structure.

    April 12, 2011

  • Are you leaving unattributed unknown white particle citations on Wordnik? I think we should raised the Terror Threat Level to vexed.

    April 12, 2011