Lexic.us

Definition of Perpendicular

1. Adjective. Intersecting at or forming right angles. "The axes are perpendicular to each other"

2. Noun. A straight line at right angles to another line.

3. Adjective. At right angles to the plane of the horizon or a base line. "Measure the perpendicular height"

4. Noun. A Gothic style in 14th and 15th century England; characterized by vertical lines and a four-centered (Tudor) arch and fan vaulting.

5. Adjective. Extremely steep. "The great perpendicular face of the cliff"

6. 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.

7. Noun. An extremely steep face.

Definition of Perpendicular

1. a. 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.

2. n. A line at right angles to the plane of the horizon; a vertical line or direction.

Definition of Perpendicular

1. Adjective. (architecture) Of a style of English Gothic architecture from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. ¹

2. Adjective. (geometry) At or forming a right angle (to). ¹

3. Noun. (geometry) A line or plane that is perpendicular to another. ¹

4. Noun. A device such as a plumb line that is used in making or marking a perpendicular line. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Perpendicular

1. [n -S]

Medical Definition of Perpendicular

1. 1. 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. 2. at right angles to a given line or surface; as, the line ad is perpendicular to the line bc. Perpendicular style, 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. Origin: L. Perpendicularis, perpendicularius: cf. F. Perpendiculaire. See Perpendicle, Pension. 1. A line at right angles to the plane of the horizon; a vertical line or direction. 2. A line or plane falling at right angles on another line or surface, or making equal angles with it on each side. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Perpendicular

peroxygenase peroxyl peroxynitrite peroxynitrite reductase peroxynitrites peroxyselenic acid perp perp walk perp walks perpend

perpended perpender perpenders perpendicle perpendicles perpendicular perpendicular fasciculus perpendicular plate perpendicular plate of ethmoid bone perpendicular plate of palatine bone

perpendicular recording perpendicular style perpendicularity perpendicularly perpendiculars perpending perpends perpension perpensions perpent

Literary usage of Perpendicular

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements by Euclid, Johan Ludvig Heiberg (1908)
"From any point C in AB draw CD perpendicular to the plane MN. Through AB and CD draw a plane AE. Then the plane AE is perpendicular to the plane MN. [xi. ..."

2. A Treatise on Conic Sections: Containing an Account of Some of the Most by George Salmon (1879)
"To find the length of the perpendicular from any point x'y' on the line ... From the given point Q draw QR parallel to the given line, and QS perpendicular. ..."

3. Projective Geometry by Oswald Veblen, John Wesley Young (1918)
"A plane perpendicular to itself, ie a plane meeting TT, in a tangent to the circle at infinity, is called a minimal or isotropic plane. ..."

4. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge (1918)
"When a number of masses all move in one plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation as FIG. 1. <D2/rm, in Fig. 1 the criterion for a balanced system of ..."

5. Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Standard Work of Reference in Art, Literature (1907)
"Supposing the planes n and irj to be in their positions in space perpendicular to each other, we take a section of the whole figure by a plane perpendicular ..."

6. Mathematical and Physical Papers by Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Baron John William Strutt Rayleigh (1901)
"Solution of the equations in the case of an infinite cylinder oscillating in an unlimited mass of fluid, in a direction perpendicular to its axis. 24. ..."

Other Resources: