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sine curve

American

noun

Mathematics.

a curve described by the equation y = sin x, the ordinate being equal to the sine of the abscissa.

sine curve British

noun

Also called: sinusoid. a curve of the equation y = sin x

"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 sine curve

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He talks a lot about what you just mentioned, which is the sort of sine curve of public interest in surveillance.

From Salon • Aug. 21, 2024

It was a picture of crossing perpendicular lines with a waveform running along the horizontal axis, a graph showing a sine curve.

From The New Yorker • Feb. 11, 2019

I wish the quality of this book didn’t jiggle like a sine curve.

From New York Times • Mar. 1, 2017

Figure 1.36 The hours of daylight as a function of day of the year can be modeled by a shifted sine curve.

From Textbooks • Mar. 30, 2016

Out of the four large windows facing the water she can see the sine curve of the coastline, the serrated firs in the distance, the glittery amethyst sea.

From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline

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