Spherical
Alternative forms
- sphærical archaic
Origin
From Latin sphericus, from Ancient Greek σφαιÏικός + -al
Full definition of spherical
Adjective
spherical
- (geometry) Shaped like a sphere.
- 2013, Henry Petroski, The Evolution of Eyeglasses, 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.
- (geometry) (no comparative or superlative) Of, or pertaining to, spheres.
- (mathematics) Of a coordinate system, specifying the location of a point in a plane by using a radius and two angles.
- (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.
- 1606: William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act 1, Scene 2Knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance.