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parabola

 [puh-rab-uh-luh]   Example Sentences Origin

pa·rab·o·la

   [puh-rab-uh-luh]
noun Geometry.
a plane curve formed by the intersection of a right circular cone with a plane parallel to a generator of the cone; the set of points in a plane that are equidistant from a fixed line and a fixed point in the same plane or in a parallel plane. Equation: y2 = 2px or x2 = 2py.
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Origin:
1570–80; < Neo-Latin < Greek parabolḗ an application. See parable
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Parabola is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
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Example Sentences
  • Fitting a parabola to the data gives the acceleration.
  • As you have probably seen before, the trajectory is a parabola.
  • Scenarios are best kept for the theatre, postures for the gym, parameters for the parabola.
Collins
World English Dictionary
parabola (pəˈræbələ)
 
—n
a conic section formed by the intersection of a cone by a plane parallel to its side. Standard equation: y² = 4ax, where 2a is the distance between focus and directrix
 
[C16: via New Latin from Greek parabolē a setting alongside; see parable]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

parabola
1570s, from Gk. parabole "parabola, application" (see parable), so called by Apollonius of Perga c.210 B.C.E. because it is produced by "application" of a given area to a given straight line. It had a different sense in Pythagorean geometry. Related: Parabolic.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
parabola   (pə-rāb'ə-lə)  Pronunciation Key 


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The curve formed by the set of points in a plane that are all equally distant from both a given line (called the directrix) and a given point (called the focus) that is not on the line.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary
parabola [(puh-rab-uh-luh)]

A geometrical shape (see geometry) consisting of a single bend and two lines going off to an infinite distance.

Note: An object that is propelled away from the Earth and then drawn back by gravity, such as a fly ball in baseball, follows a path shaped like a parabola.
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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