polar

[ poh-ler ]

adjective

1. of or relating to the North or South Pole.
2. of or relating to the pole of any sphere, a magnet, an electric cell, etc.
3. opposite in character or action:

   The two have personalities that are polar.

4. capable of ionizing, as NaCl, HCl, or NaOH; electrolytic; heteropolar.
5. central; pivotal:

   the polar provision of the treaty.

6. analogous to the polestar as a guide; guiding:

   a polar precept.

polar

/ ˈpəʊlə /

adjective

1. situated at or near, coming from, or relating to either of the earth's poles or the area inside the Arctic or Antarctic Circles

   polar regions

2. having or relating to a pole or poles
3. pivotal or guiding in the manner of the Pole Star
4. directly opposite, as in tendency or character
5. chem
   1. Alsoheteropolar (of a molecule or compound) being or having a molecule in which there is an uneven distribution of electrons and thus a permanent dipole moment

      water has polar molecules

   2. (of a crystal or substance) being or having a crystal that is bound by ionic bonds

      sodium chloride forms polar crystals

polar

/ pō′lər /

1. Relating to a pole, such as the pole of a magnet or one of the electrodes of an electrolytic cell.
2. Relating to the North Pole or the South Pole of Earth, or analogous regions of another planet.
3. Relating to a molecule or substance that has polar bonds.

Other Words From

• anti·polar adjective
• trans·polar adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of polar¹

From the Medieval Latin word polāris, dating back to 1545–55. See pole ², -ar ¹

Example Sentences

Global warming has triggered the greatest loss of ice in recent history, opening up the polar region to increased shipping traffic and mining exploration, bringing new levels of noise to an environment that used to be acoustically pristine.

From Time

For now, SpaceX is only including laser links on polar satellites.

From Ars Technica

The result was so successful that Malden ended up changing its name to Polartec, and polar fleece now likely needs very little in the way of introduction.

From Outside Online

In the atmosphere, waves can also break, but in this case the energy from those waves slows the polar vortex and heats the stratosphere.

From Popular-Science

“India is definitely looking toward the Arctic to augment the nation’s fossil fuel needs,” says Sulagna Chattopadhyay, president of Science and Geopolitics of Himalaya, Arctic and Antarctic, a policy and advocacy organization working on polar issues.

From Ozy

The weather, the conditions, you can imagine it—a polar bear in a desert, with a swimming pool 50 centimetres deep.

From The Daily Beast

Shaked spoke in these generalities initially—referring to two sets of people, two polar opposites on a pendulum.

From The Daily Beast

Sykes suspects that the hairs come from either an unrecognized bear species, or an unknown hybrid of polar bear and brown bear.

From The Daily Beast

She would leave every day of shooting during the polar vortex just grinning from ear-to-ear.

From The Daily Beast

The world of the military is to the writer admittedly “the polar opposite” of his own.

From The Daily Beast

Long before that, however, the sun had come back to gladden the Polar regions, and break up the reign of ancient night.

From Project Gutenberg

The same would be the case if the polar axis of one sphere stood precisely at right angles to that of the other.

From Project Gutenberg

Thus the wide habitability of the earth is an effect arising from the inclination of its polar axis.

From Project Gutenberg

Let us conceive a particle of air situated immediately over the earth's polar axis.

From Project Gutenberg

On the equatorial side this air is moving more rapidly than it is on the polar side.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• freezing
• frigid
• glacial
• icy