Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

trigonometric function

American  

noun

Mathematics.
  1. Also called circular function.  a function of an angle, as sine or cosine, expressed as the ratio of the sides of a right triangle.

  2. any function involving only trigonometric functions and constants.

  3. the generalization of these to functions of real or complex numbers.


trigonometric function British  

noun

  1. Also called: circular function.  any of a group of functions of an angle expressed as a ratio of two of the sides of a right-angled triangle containing the angle. The group includes sine, cosine, tangent, secant, cosecant, and cotangent

  2. any function containing only sines, cosines, etc, and constants

"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

trigonometric function Scientific  
/ trĭg′ə-nə-mĕtrĭk /
  1. A function of an angle, as the sine, cosine, or tangent, whose value is expressed as a ratio of two of the sides of the right triangle that contains the angle.


Etymology

Origin of trigonometric function

First recorded in 1905–10

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.

See Examples For:

For the following exercises, find the exact value of each trigonometric function.

From Textbooks Dec. 1, 2021

Figure 1.41 The graph of each of the inverse trigonometric functions is a reflection about the line y = x of the corresponding restricted trigonometric function.

From Textbooks Mar. 30, 2016

When evaluating an inverse trigonometric function, the output is an angle.

From Textbooks Mar. 30, 2016

When evaluating the composition of a trigonometric function with an inverse trigonometric function, draw a reference triangle to assist in determining the ratio of sides that represents the output of the trigonometric function.

From Textbooks Feb. 13, 2015

“That last trigonometric function wasn’t as easy as it looked.”

From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 12,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training