parabolic
adjective
Did you know?
The two distinct meanings of parabolic trace back to the development of Late Latin and New Latin. Late Latin is the Latin language used by writers in the third to sixth centuries. In that language, the word for "parable" was parabola—hence, the "parable" sense of parabolic. New Latin refers to the Latin used since the end of the medieval period, especially in regard to scientific description and classification. In New Latin, parabola names the same geometrical curve as it does in English. Both meanings of parabola were drawn from the Greek word for "comparison": parabolē.
Examples of parabolic in a Sentence
IEEE Spectrum, 21 July 2021
Photograph: Tony Luong By 1955, the Air Force had refined the art of parabolic flight and could reliably provide up to 30 seconds of microgravity at a time.
—Nicola Twilley, WIRED, 11 Feb. 2020
Aided by its curious title, The Courage To Be Disliked is a parabolic conversation between a youth and a philosopher designed to explicate the intersection of Greek philosophy and Adlerian psychology.
—Tim Maurer, Forbes, 12 Jan. 2025
To simulate these conditions on Earth, scientists use parabolic flight paths, where an aircraft flies in a series of arcs to create brief periods of weightlessness.
—William Mullane, USA TODAY, 10 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for parabolic
Cite this Entry
“Parabolic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/parabolic. Accessed 4 Mar. 2025.
Copy Citation
Share