9 results for: parabola

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

pa·rab·o·la

Audio Help [puh-rab-uh-luh] Pronunciation Key

–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: y ² = 2px or x² = 2py.

[Origin: 1570–80; < NL < Gk parabol an application. See parable

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
parabola

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

pa·rab·o·la Audio Help (pə-rāb'ə-lə) Pronunciation Key

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n. A plane curve formed by the intersection of a right circular cone and a plane parallel to an element of the cone or by the locus of points equidistant from a fixed line and a fixed point not on the line.

[New Latin, from Greek parabolē, comparison, application, parabola (from the relationship between the line joining the vertices of a conic and the line through its focus and parallel to its directrix), from paraballein, to compare; see parable.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
parabola

1579, 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.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

parabola
noun
a plane curve formed by the intersection of a right circular cone and a plane parallel to an element of the curve

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

parabola Audio Help (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 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
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.

[Chapter:] Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Parabola

Par"a*ble\, n. [F. parabole, L. parabola, fr. Gr. ? a placing beside or together, a comparing, comparison, a parable, fr. ? to throw beside, compare; ? beside + ? to throw; cf. Skr. gal to drop. Cf. Emblem, Gland, Palaver, Parabola, Parley, Parabole, Symbol.] A comparison; a similitude; specifically, a short fictitious narrative of something which might really occur in life or nature, by means of which a moral is drawn; as, the parables of Christ. --Chaucer.

Declare unto us the parable of the tares. --Matt. xiii. 36.

Syn: See Allegory, and Note under Apologue.

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PARABOLA

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