Fourier

American  

[foor-ee-ey, -ee-er, foo-ryey] / ˈfʊər iˌeɪ, -i ər, fuˈryeɪ /

noun

1. François Marie Charles 1772–1837, French socialist, writer, and reformer.

2. Jean Baptiste Joseph 1768–1830, French mathematician and physicist.

3. a crater in the third quadrant of the face of the moon: about 36 miles (58 km) in diameter.

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Fourier British  

/ furje, ˈfʊərɪˌeɪ /

noun

1. ( François Marie ) Charles (ʃarl). 1772–1837, French social reformer: propounded a system of cooperatives known as Fourierism, esp in his work Le Nouveau monde industriel (1829–30)

2. Jean Baptiste Joseph (ʒɑ̃ batist ʒozɛf). 1768–1830, French mathematician, Egyptologist, and administrator, noted particularly for his research on the theory of heat and the method of analysis named after him

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Fourier Scientific  

/ fr′ē-ā′,fo̅o̅-ryā′ /

1. French mathematician and physicist who introduced the expansion of periodic functions in the trigonometric series that is now named for him. He also studied the conduction of heat in solid bodies.

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Example Sentences

Using that property, the researchers proposed a photonic quantum circuit that performs a quantum Fourier transformation for W states with any number of photons.

From Science Daily • May 13, 2026

Robotics companies tout their healthcare potential, with firms like Fourier already supplying rural rehab centres with devices like mechanical arms for physiotherapy.

From Barron's • Mar. 3, 2026

“Some of these companies financed at 2%-3% interest rates,” borrowing as much as seven times their cash flows, says Orlando Gemes, chief investment officer at Fourier Asset Management, a credit hedge fund in London.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 22, 2025

In 1824 -- so three decades before either of their experiments -- the mathematician Joseph Fourier was thinking about the surface of the Earth, why it isn’t much colder.

From Scientific American • Nov. 9, 2023

While inspecting the schools in his province, Fourier discovered an eleven-year-old boy whose remarkable intellect and flair for oriental languages had already earned him the admiring attention of scholars.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan