Sphere

Definition of Sphere

(Geom.) A body or space contained under a single surface, which in every part is equally distant from a point within called its center.

Hence, any globe or globular body, especially a celestial one, as the sun, a planet, or the earth.

Of celestial bodies, first the sun,
A mighty sphere, he framed.

- Milton.

(Astron.) The apparent surface of the heavens, which is assumed to be spherical and everywhere equally distant, in which the heavenly bodies appear to have their places, and on which the various astronomical circles, as of right ascension and declination, the equator, ecliptic, etc., are conceived to be drawn; an ideal geometrical sphere, with the astronomical and geographical circles in their proper positions on it.

(Logic) The extension of a general conception, or the totality of the individuals or species to which it may be applied.

Circuit or range of action, knowledge, or influence; compass; province; employment; place of existence.

To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in 't.

- Shak.

Taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere by herself.

- Hawthorne.

Each in his hidden sphere of joy or woe
Our hermit spirits dwell.

- Keble.

Rank; order of society; social positions.

An orbit, as of a star; a socket.

Armillary sphere
See under Armillary, Crystalline,.

Doctrine of the sphere
applications of the principles of spherical trigonometry to the properties and relations of the circles of the sphere, and the problems connected with them, in astronomy and geography, as to the latitudes and longitudes, distance and bearing, of places on the earth, and the right ascension and declination, altitude and azimuth, rising and setting, etc., of the heavenly bodies; spherical geometry.

Music of the spheres
See under Music.

v. t.

To place in a sphere, or among the spheres; to insphere.

[imp. & p. p. Sphered ; p. pr. & vb. n. Sphering.]

The glorious planet Sol
In noble eminence enthroned and sphered
Amidst the other.

- Shak.

To form into roundness; to make spherical, or spheral; to perfect.

Related Words

Aldebaran, Canicula, Dog Star, Hesper, Hesperus, Lucifer, North Star, Phosphor, Phosphorus, Polaris, Sirius, Venus, Vesper, academic discipline, academic specialty, acreage, agora, ambit, amphitheater, applied science, arena, art, athletic field, auditorium, background, bag, bailiwick, balloon, bear garden, beat, bladder, blob, boll, bolus, border, borderland, bowl, boxing ring, breadth, bubble, bulb, bulbil, bulblet, bull ring, campus, canvas, caste, celestial body, champaign, circle, circuit, circus, class, cockpit, coliseum, colosseum, comet, concern, condition, continuum, course, daystar, demesne, department, department of knowledge, dimension, discipline, domain, dominion, drop, droplet, echelon, ellipsoid, emptiness, empty space, ensphere, evening star, expanse, expansion, extension, extent, field, field of inquiry, field of study, fixed stars, floor, footing, forte, forum, galactic space, geoid, globelet, globoid, globule, glomerulus, gob, gobbet, ground, gym, gymnasium, hall, heavenly body, hemisphere, hierarchy, hippodrome, infinite space, interstellar space, judicial circuit, jurisdiction, knob, knot, level, lists, living sapphires, locale, lodestar, march, marketplace, mat, measure, milieu, morning star, natural science, nothingness, oblate spheroid, ology, open forum, orbit, orblet, order, outer space, palaestra, pale, parade ground, pellet, pit, place, platform, polar star, polestar, position, power structure, precedence, precinct, prize ring, prolate spheroid, proportion, province, public square, pure science, purlieu, range, rank, rate, rating, realm, ring, rondure, round, scene, scene of action, scenery, science, setting, site, social science, society, space, spatial extension, specialty, spheroid, spherule, spread, squared circle, stadium, stage, stage set, stage setting, standing, starry host, stars, station, status, stratum, study, subdiscipline, subject, superficial extension, surface, technicology, technics, technology, terrain, territory, theater, thing, tilting ground, tiltyard, tract, void, volume, walk, walk of life, wrestling ring

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Sphalerite
Sphene
Sphenethmoid
Sphenethmoid bone
Sphenethmoidal
Spheniscan
Spheno-
Sphenodon
Sphenoethmoidal
Sphenogram
Sphenographer
Sphenographic
Sphenographist
Sphenography
Sphenoid
Sphenoid bone
Sphenoidal
Sphenotic
Sphenotic bone
Spheral
-Sphere-
Spherical
Spherical angle
Spherical excess
Spherical geometry
Spherical harmonic analysis
Spherical lune
Spherical opening
Spherical polygon
Spherical projection
Spherical sector
Spherical segment
Spherical triangle
Spherical trigonometry
Spherical ungula
Spherical wedge
Sphericity
Sphericle
Spherics
Spherobacteria
Spheroconic

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