Word of the Day

: August 25, 2007

parabolic

adjective pair-uh-BAH-lik

What It Means

1 : expressed by or being a parable : allegorical

2 : of, having the form of, or relating to a parabola : of, having the form of, or relating to a curve formed by the intersection of a cone with a plane parallel to a straight line in its surface

parabolic in Context

Astronomers have determined that the comet follows a parabolic orbit.

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."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.