Word: sphere Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Etymology tree Ancient Greek σφαῖρᾰ (sphaîră)bor. Latin sphaera Late Latin sphērader. Old French spherebor. Middle English spere English sphere From Middle English spere, from Old French sphere, from Late Latin sphēra, earlier Latin sphaera (“ball, globe, celestial sphere”), from Ancient Greek σφαῖρα (sphaîra, “ball, globe”), of unknown origin. Not related to superficially similar Persian سپهر (sepehr, “sky”) . Displaced Old English cliewen, þoþor, and æppel. Pronunciation: /sfɪə/, /sfɪː/, /ˈsfɪj.ə/, /sfɪɚ/, /sfiɾ/ 1. A surface in three dimensions consisting of all points equidistant from a center. . 2. An object which appears to be bounded by a sphere; a round object, a ball. Example: Of celestial bodies, first the sun, / A mighty sphere, he framed. Example: So your orientation changes a little bit but it sinks in that the world is a sphere, and you're going around it, sometimes under it, sideways, or over it. 3. The celestial sphere: the edge of the heavens, imagined as a hollow globe within which celestial bodies appear to be embedded. Labels: archaic Example: Though cold and darkness longer hang somewhere, / Yet Phoebus equally lights all the Sphere. Example: Resistless rolls the illimitable sphere, / And one great circle forms the unmeasured year. 4. Any of the concentric hollow transparent globes formerly believed to rotate around the Earth, and which carried the heavenly bodies; there were originally believed to be eight, and later nine and ten; friction between them was thought to cause a harmonious sound (the music of the spheres). Labels: historical Example: ſooner ſhall the Sun fall from his Spheare, Than Tamburlaine be ſlaine or ouercome. Example: It is more simplicitie to teach our children[…][t]he knowledge of the starres, and the motion of the eighth spheare, before their owne. 5. An area of activity for a planet; or by extension, an area of influence for a god, hero etc. 6. The region in which something or someone is active; one's province, domain. Labels: figuratively Example: sphere of influence Example: ...while his sweet and gentle niece would be a charming companion for Francesca; and he thought, with a glow of affection long unfelt, that Lucy Aylmer must inevitably make a friend whose future kindness might add much to her happiness. Both were at present placed out of their sphere: but the one would in all probability have it greatly in her power to cherish and aid the other. 7. The natural, normal, or proper place (of something). Example: in one's sphere 8. The set of all points in three-dimensional Euclidean space (or n-dimensional space, in topology) that are a fixed distance from a fixed point . 9. The domain of reference of a proposition, subject, or predicate, or the totality of the particular subjects to which it applies. Labels: dated Example: In point of fact, so often as we think a subject as partially included within the sphere of a predicate, eo ipso we think it as partially, that is, particularly, excluded therefrom. Example: All categorical propositions necessarily imply the existence of their subjects in the appropriate sphere; in affirmative propositions this involves the existence of the predicate in the same sphere; but in negative propositions the predicate does not necessarily exist in that particular sphere, though it does in some sphere.