tidal force

American  

noun

1. the gravitational pull exerted by a celestial body that raises the tides on another body within the gravitational field, dependent on the varying distance between the bodies.

---

tidal force Scientific  

1. A secondary effect of the gravitational forces between two objects orbiting each other, such as the Earth and the Moon, that tends to elongate each body along the axis of a line connecting their centers. Tidal forces are responsible for the fluctuation of the tides as well as for the synchronous rotation of certain moons as they orbit their planets.

---

Example Sentences

Because of its distance, Venus exerts the largest tidal force on Earth, although it’s just a small fraction compared with our moon.

From Washington Post • Jun. 7, 2022

In “Hiraeth,” for example, a yellow-green color gives tidal force to a broad, overhanging curve, while a steeply angled darker stroke swings across like a surfer before cutting back.

From New York Times • Apr. 27, 2017

A tidal force results from the unequal gravitational pull on two sides of a body.

From Textbooks • Oct. 13, 2016

Bodies surged forward with the tidal force of a marathon start while the actor sat on a low stage with a paralytic look about him.

From Salon • May 30, 2015

One after another, the Goths, the Huns, the Saracens, the Turks, and the Tatars, by the sheer tidal force of their numbers threatened to engulf the ancient and medieval civilization of Europe.

From Our Foreigners A Chronicle of Americans in the Making by Orth, Samuel Peter