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or three inches long, found in temperature seas; -- also called the lancelet. Its body is pointed at both ends. It is the lowest and most generalized of the vertebrates, having neither brain, skull, vertebræ, nor red blood. It forms the type of the group Acrania, Leptocardia, etc.

The arc of the horizon between the true east or west point and the center of the sun, or a star, at its rising or setting. At the rising, the amplitude is eastern or ortive: at the setting, it is western, occiduous, or occasive. It is also northern or southern, when north or south of the equator.

A figure by which a speaker appeals to his hearers or opponents for their opinion on the point in debate. Walker.

of the meridian, the eye being supposed at an infinite distance, and in the east or west point of the horizon.

epresentation of an image on a plane or curved surface, which, when viewed from a certain point, or as reflected from a curved mirror or through a polyhedron, appears regular and in proportion; a deformation of an image.

A meteor appearing to radiate from a point in the constellation Andromeda, -- whence the name.

ntrivance consisting of a vane above, connected in the building with a dial or index with pointers to show the changes of the wind.

The inclosed space near the point where two lines; a corner; a nook. Into the utmost angle of the world. Spenser. To search the tenderest angles of the heart. Milton.

ngle or to angles; having an angle or angles; forming an angle or corner; sharp-cornered; pointed; as, an angular figure.

Not harmonic. The anharmonic function or ratio of four points abcd on a straight line is the quantity (ac/ad):(bc/bd), where the segments are to regarded as plus or minus, according to the order of the letters.

anet or satellite goes through the complete cycles of its changes of anomaly, or from any point in its elliptic orbit to the same again. -- Anomalistic, or Periodical year. See under Year.

The two projecting feathered angles of the forehead of some birds; the frontal points.

Opposite to the sun; -- said of the point in the heavens 180º distant from the sun.

That point in the orbit of a double star where the smaller star is farthest from its primary.

The tip, top, point, or angular summit of anything; as, the apex of a mountain, spire, or cone; the apex, or tip, of a leaf.

That point of a planet's or comet's orbit which is most distant from the sun, the opposite point being the perihelion.

Terminated abruptly by a small, distinct point, as a leaf.

to remove spherical aberration; -- said of a lens. Aplanatic focus of a lens (Opt.), the point or focus from which rays diverging pass the lens without spherical aberration. In certain forms of lenses there are two such foci; and it is by taking advantage of this fact that the best aplanatic object glasses of microsco…

That point in the orbit of the moon which is at the greatest distance from the earth.

A figure by which a speaker formally declines to take notice of a favorable point, but in such a manner as to produce the effect desired. [For example, see Mark Antony's oration. Shak., Julius Cæsar, iii. 2.]