equatorial
adjective
Simple meaning
Related to an imaginary line around the Earth forming the great circle that is equidistant from the north and south poles.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
eekwuhtawreeuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ikwəˈtɔɹiəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
geography
Of or relating to or at an equator
Relating to the midline of any approximately spherical object.
geography
Of or existing at or near the geographic equator
organic chemistry
Of a bond, lying approximately in the plane of a ring, perpendicular to its axis
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Of or relating to or at an equator
Used this way, equatorial is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use equatorial
- “Equatorial diameter.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Any of the ocean currents that flow westward at the equator.
A country of west central Africa (including islands in the Gulf of Guinea).
An equatorial current that flows west across the Pacific just north of the equator.
A country of west central Africa (including islands in the Gulf of Guinea).
An equatorial current that flows west across the Pacific just south of the equator.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.