parabola

American  

[puh-rab-uh-luh] / pəˈræb ə lə /

noun

Geometry.

parabolas plural

1. a plane curve formed by the intersection of a right circular cone with a plane parallel to a generator of the cone; the set of points in a plane that are equidistant from a fixed line and a fixed point in the same plane or in a parallel plane. Equation: y 2 = 2 px or x 2 = 2 py.

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parabola British  

/ pəˈræbələ /

noun

1. a conic section formed by the intersection of a cone by a plane parallel to its side. Standard equation: y ² = 4 ax , where 2 a is the distance between focus and directrix

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parabola Scientific  

/ pə-răb′ə-lə /

1. The curve formed by the set of points in a plane that are all equally distant from both a given line (called the directrix) and a given point (called the focus) that is not on the line.

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parabola Cultural  

1. A geometrical shape (see geometry) consisting of a single bend and two lines going off to an infinite distance.

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Discover More

An object that is propelled away from the Earth and then drawn back by gravity, such as a fly ball in baseball, follows a path shaped like a parabola.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• parabolas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of parabola

1570–80; < New Latin < Greek parabolḗ an application. See parable

Explanation

When a quadratic function is graphed, it forms a parabola, a u-shaped curve that has to meet certain technical mathematical requirements. Think of the narrow curve at the end of an oval and you can imagine a parabola. Imagine a traffic cone. If you look at it from the side, it looks like a triangle. Now imagine a plane, like a sheet of metal, slicing through the cone and parallel to one of the sides. If the plane is removed and the cone turned to that side, the edges of the sliced area would form a parabola. This curved shape is the path followed by something as it moves through the air and is affected by gravity.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

parabola parabolas

They interlock, forming a three-dimensional-looking beam comprised of geometric patterns — a rotated hyperbolic parabola .

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2023

Among his discoveries was a need to move his takeoff point farther back for higher jumps, so he could change the apex of the parabola shape of his jump to clear the bar.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 13, 2023

“The parabola is the perfect concentrator of all energy to a single focal point,” said Eversley, now 81, who remembers being the only African American in the school of engineering at Carnegie Mellon.

From New York Times ● Sep. 6, 2022

If eccentricity is equal to 1, it is a parabola.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021

He digs a parabola into the sand with his foot and sighs.

From "Paper Towns" by John Green

This was not the barefoot frolic I knew from picnics, not the game of lazy parabolas.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025

The 10,523-seat arena opened in 1964 as an all-concrete structure built around two giant parabolas.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 3, 2023

It is not uncommon for bridges to be constructed using parabolas as we will see in the next example.

From Textbooks ● May 6, 2020

Previously, we learned to graph vertical parabolas from the general form or the standard form using properties.

From Textbooks ● May 6, 2020

The subject that grew out of this critical insight, analytic geometry, is essential to understanding calculus; yet our students are coming out of high school unable to graph straight lines or parabolas.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos

Related Words

• arc
• arch
• contour
• loop
• trajectory