Wiktionary

spherical

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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English spheric +‎ -al (see sphere), from Latin sphericus (+ -al), from Ancient Greek σφαιρικός (sphairikós).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /sfɛɹɪkəl/, /sfiːɹɪkəl/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛɹɪkəl

Adjective

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spherical (comparative more spherical, superlative most spherical)

  1. (geometry) Shaped like a sphere.
    Synonyms: globular, orbicular, round
    • 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, not comparable) 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.
  5. (statistics, econometrics) Of a multivariate probability distribution, to have a covariance matrix equal to the identity matrix up to a multiplicative factor.
    a spherical Gaussian distribution

Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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Anagrams

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Scots

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Etymology

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From English spherical.

Adjective

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spherical

  1. spherical
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