Search the Dictionary

A prolate spheroid; a figure described by the revolution of an ellipse about its greater axis. Cf. Oblatum, and see Ellipsoid of revolution, under Ellipsoid.

The history of the individual development of an organism; the history of the evolution of the germ; the development of an individual organism, -- in distinction from phylogeny, or evolution of the tribe. Called also henogenesis, henogeny.

he ancients to be inclosed one within another, and to carry the heavenly bodies in their revolutions.

The path described by a heavenly body in its periodical revolution around another body; as, the orbit of Jupiter, of the earth, of the moon.

Of or pertaining to an orbit. "Orbital revolution." J. D. Forbes. Orbital index (Anat.), in the skull, the ratio of the vertical height to the transverse width of the orbit, which is taken as the standard, equal to 100.

he stage and the audience; -- originally appropriated by the Greeks to the chorus and its evolutions, afterward by the Romans to persons of distinction, and by the moderns to a band of instrumental musicians.

An apparatus which illustrates, by the revolution of balls moved by wheelwork, the relative size, periodic motions, positions, orbits, etc., of bodies in the solar system.

That form of evolution in which the truly ancestral characters conserved by heredity are reproduced in development; original simple descent; -- distinguished from kenogenesis. Sometimes, in zoölogy, the abrupt metamorphosis of insects, crustaceans, etc.

Generated by the revolution of a parabola, or by a line that moves on a parabola as a directing curve; as, a parabolic conoid. Parabolic conoid, a paraboloid; a conoid whose directing curve is a parabola. See Conoid. -- Parabolic mirror (Opt.), a mirror having a paraboloidal surface which gives for parallel rays (as t…

embly and orderly arrangement or display of troops, in full equipments, for inspection or evolutions before some superior officer; a review of troops. Parades are general, regimental, or private (troop, battery, or company), according to the force assembled.

e same direction, and in all parts equally distant; as, parallel lines; parallel planes. Revolutions . . . parallel to the equinoctial. Hakluyt.

In France, before the Revolution of 1789, one of the several principal judicial courts. Parliament heel, the inclination of a ship when made to careen by shifting her cargo or ballast. -- Parliament hinge (Arch.), a hinge with so great a projection from the wall or frame as to allow a door or shutter to swing back fla…

ct or state of passing through any space; as, the peragration of the moon in her monthly revolution. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

f time as limited and determined by some recurring phenomenon, as by the completion of a revolution of one of the heavenly bodies; a division of time, as a series of years, months, or days, in which something is completed, and ready to recommence and go on in the same order; as, the period of the sun, or the earth, or…

Performed in a period, or regular revolution; proceeding in a series of successive circuits; as, the periodical motion of the planets round the sun.

ato was a warm advocate. -- Platonic year (Astron.), a period of time determined by the revolution of the equinoxes, or the space of time in which the stars and constellations return to their former places in respect to the equinoxes; -- called also great year. This revolution, which is caused by the precession of the…

a wheel on which prayers are pasted by Buddhist priests, who then put the wheel in rapid revolution. Each turn in supposed to have the efficacy of an oral repetition of all the prayers on the wheel. Sometimes it is moved by a stream.

ich was supposed to carry with it all the inclosed spheres with their planets in a daily revolution from east to west. See Crystalline heavens, under Crystalline. The motions of the greatest persons in a government ought to be, as the motions of the planets, under primum mobile. Bacon.

Note under Cycloid. -- Prolate ellipsoid or spheroid (Geom.), a figure generated by the revolution of an ellipse about its major axis. See Ellipsoid of revolution, under Ellipsoid.

A prolate spheroid. See Ellipsoid of revolution, under Ellipsoid.