prime meridian
the prime meridian, the meridian running through Greenwich, England, from which longitude east and west is reckoned.
Origin of prime meridian
1Words Nearby prime meridian
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use prime meridian in a sentence
But it is our simple duty, in our present judicial capacity, to examine the question of a prime meridian from all points of view.
You have met to discuss and consider the important question of a prime meridian for all nations.
We may then say that, from a purely scientific point of view, any meridian may be taken as the prime meridian.
My honorable friend, Mr. Rutherfurd, says that from the time the prime meridian was chosen it would cease to be neutral.
We must know how far other places are from the prime meridian, and for that reason it is necessary that it should be on land.
British Dictionary definitions for prime meridian
the 0° meridian from which the other meridians or lines of longitude are calculated, usually taken to pass through Greenwich
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 prime meridian
[ prīm ]
The meridian with a longitude of 0°, adopted officially in 1884 as a reference line from which longitude east and west are measured and as a basis for standardized time zones. It passes through Greenwich, England, the site of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, which was founded in 1675 and which closed except as a museum in 1998. The prime meridian, together with its opposite meridian having a longitude of 180°, divide the Earth roughly into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, with those portions of the British Isles, Europe, and Africa that lie west of the prime meridian, considered for practical purposes as belonging to the Eastern Hemisphere.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Cultural definitions for prime meridian
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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