meridian
noun · adjective · verb
Simple meaning
An imaginary line on Earth from the North Pole to the South Pole.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
merideeuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
mɚˈɪdiən
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.
noun
astronomy
In full celestial meridian: a great circle passing through the poles of the celestial sphere and the zenith for a particular point on the Earth's surface.
astronomyalso geography
In full terrestrial meridian: a great circle on the Earth's surface, passing through the geographic poles (the terrestrial North Pole and South Pole); also, half of such a circle extending from pole to pole, all points of which have the same longitude.
by extension
The place on the celestial meridian where it is crossed by the sun or a star at its highest point.
by extensionfiguratively
The highest or most developed point, or most splendid stage, of something; culmination, peak, zenith.
by extension
A ring or half-ring with markings in which an artificial globe is installed and may spin.
A number of places in the United States
adjective
Relating to a meridian (in various senses); meridional.
verb
transitive
To cause an object to reach the meridian or highest point of (something).
intransitive
Of a celestial body: to reach its meridian.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: In full celestial meridian: a great circle passing through the poles of the celestial sphere and the zenith for a particular point on the Earth's surface.
Used this way, meridian is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use meridian
- “All points on the same meridian have the same longitude.”noun
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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.
The meridian passing through Greenwich.
An imaginary line passing through both magnetic poles of the Earth.
A meridian that passes through the observer's zenith.
Meridian at zero degree longitude from which east and west are reckoned (usually the Greenwich longitude in England).
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: in full celestial meridian
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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.