great circle
a circle on a spherical surface such that the plane containing the circle passes through the center of the sphere.: Compare small circle.
a circle of which a segment represents the shortest distance between two points on the surface of the earth.
Origin of great circle
1Words Nearby great circle
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use great circle in a sentence
So who else might lie inside the great circle of the Amphipolis tomb?
My readers will imagine a great circle carefully railed off from the outside world by iron bars.
We begin then the detailed evolution of form; it is like a great circle traced downwards and upwards.
Evolution of Life and Form | Annie Wood BesantAnd then at last he led the horse out into the center of the great circle of the lodges, and told his daughter to dismount.
Blackfeet Tales of Glacier National Park | James Willard SchultzIt swung and banked, and the vibrant song of its engine came down to the men as Blake swept in a great circle about the big ship.
Other views had been partial: this was a great circle of the heavens and the earth, three hundred miles in circumference!
Letters from Switzerland | Samuel Irenus Prime
British Dictionary definitions for great circle
a circular section of a sphere that has a radius equal to that of the sphere: Compare small circle
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for great circle
A circle on the surface of a sphere whose plane passes through the center of the sphere. The Earth's equator is a great circle on the sphere of the globe.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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