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geometry

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English gemetry, geometrie, from Old French geometrie (modern French géométrie),[1] from Latin geōmetria, from Ancient Greek γεωμετρία (geōmetría, “geometry, land-survey”), from γεωμέτρης (geōmétrēs, “land measurer”), from γῆ (gê, “earth, land, country”) + -μετρία (-metría, “measurement”), from μέτρον (métron, “a measure”). By surface analysis, geo- +‎ -metry. Doublet of gematria.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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geometry (countable and uncountable, plural geometries)

  1. (mathematics, uncountable) The branch of mathematics dealing with spatial relationships.
    • 1925, René Descartes, “The Geometry of Rene Descartes”, in David Eugene Smith, Marcia Latham, transl., [1637, La Géométrie], Cosimo Classics, published 2007, page 2:
      ANY problem in geometry can easily be reduced to such terms that a knowledge of the lengths of certain straight lines is sufficient for its construction.
  2. (mathematics, often qualified in combination, countable) A mathematical system that deals with spatial relationships and that is built on a particular set of axioms; a subbranch of geometry which deals with such a system or systems.
    • 1975 [Addison-Wesley], Eugene F. Krause, Taxicab Geometry, 1986, Dover, page 64,
      Entire new geometries are also suggested by real-world cities.
    • 2004, Judith Cederberg, A Course in Modern Geometries, Springer, page 1:
      Finite geometries were developed in the late nineteenth century, in part to demonstrate and test the axiomatic properties of completeness, consistency, and independence.
    • 2006, Mark Wagner, The Geometries of Visual Space, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, page ix:
      Previous theorists have often tried to test whether visual space is best described by a small set of traditional geometries, such as the Euclidean geometry most of us studied in High School or the hyperbolic and spherical geometries introduced by 19th-century mathematicians.
  3. (countable) The observed or specified spatial attributes of an object, etc.
    • 1990, M. E. Cage, D. Y. Yu, G. Marullo Reedtz, “Observation and an Explanation of Breakdown of the Quantum Hall Effect”, in Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, volume 95, number 1:
      The inset of figure 1 shows the geometry of the samples. They are 4.6 mm long and 0.4 mm wide.
    • 2003, Matt Welsh, Running Linux, page 74:
      Also, certain SCSI controllers need to be told where to find drive geometry in order for Linux to recognize the layout of your drive.
    • 2018 March 14, Roger Penrose, “'Mind over matter': Stephen Hawking – obituary”, in The Guardian:
      He was extremely highly regarded, in view of his many greatly impressive, sometimes revolutionary, contributions to the understanding of the physics and the geometry of the universe.
  4. (algebraic geometry, countable) A mathematical object comprising representations of a space and of its spatial relationships.

Holonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ “ǧēmetrī(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Further reading

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