minor axis

American

noun

Mathematics.

the axis of an ellipse that is perpendicular to the major axis at a point equidistant from the foci.

minor axis British

noun

the shorter or shortest axis of an ellipse or ellipsoid

"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

Etymology

Origin of minor axis

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

minor axis

Find the endpoints of the minor axis Step 5.

From Textbooks ● May 6, 2020

The minor axis is vertical but the end points aren’t given.

From Textbooks ● May 6, 2020

The distance from the center to the endpoints of the minor axis is 2.

From Textbooks ● May 6, 2020

The longer axis is called the major axis, and the shorter axis is called the minor axis.

From Textbooks ● Feb. 13, 2015

Its form is that of an ellipsoid, with a major axis 26 millimetres in length, while the minor axis measures 11 millimetres.

From More Hunting Wasps by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023