sphere
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: astronomy
geometry
human-sciences
logic
mathematics
mysticism
mythology
natural-sciences
philosophy
sciences
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.
Inflected forms:
form: spheres
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: sphaere
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: sphære
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: sphear
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: spheare
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: spheres
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: sphering
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: sphered
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: sphered
pos: verb
tags: past
form: sphaere
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: sphære
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: sphear
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: spheare
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: A surface in three dimensions consisting of all points equidistant from a center. .
pos: noun
gloss: An object which appears to be bounded by a sphere; a round object, a ball.
pos: noun
examples: Of celestial bodies, first the sun, / A mighty sphere, he framed.
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.
gloss: The celestial sphere: the edge of the heavens, imagined as a hollow globe within which celestial bodies appear to be embedded.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
examples: Though cold and darkness longer hang somewhere, / Yet Phoebus equally lights all the Sphere.
Resistless rolls the illimitable sphere, / And one great circle forms the unmeasured year.
gloss: 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).
pos: noun
tags: historical
examples: ſooner ſhall the Sun fall from his Spheare,
Than Tamburlaine be ſlaine or ouercome.
It is more simplicitie to teach our children[…][t]he knowledge of the starres, and the motion of the eighth spheare, before their owne.
They understood not the motion of the eighth sphear from West to East, and so conceived the longitude of the Stars invariable.
gloss: An area of activity for a planet; or by extension, an area of influence for a god, hero etc.
pos: noun
gloss: The region in which something or someone is active; one's province, domain.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: sphere of influence
...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.
They thought – originally on grounds derived from religion – that each thing or person had its or his proper sphere, to overstep which is ‘unjust’.
gloss: The natural, normal, or proper place (of something).
pos: noun
examples: in one's sphere
gloss: 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 .
pos: noun
gloss: The domain of reference of a proposition, subject, or predicate, or the totality of the particular subjects to which it applies.
pos: noun
tags: dated
examples: 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.
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.
Finally, the disjunctive judgment contains a relation of two or more propositions to each other—a relation not of consequence, but of logical opposition, in so far as the sphere of the one proposition excludes that of the other.
gloss: To place in a sphere, or among the spheres; to ensphere.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The glorious planet Sol / In noble eminence enthroned and sphered / Amidst the other.
Sphere all your lights around, above;
⁠Sleep, gentle heavens, before the prow;
⁠Sleep, gentle winds, as he sleeps now,
My friend, the brother of my love.
gloss: To make round or spherical; to perfect.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: sphered Whole
Related words: atmosphere
hemisphere
magnetosphere
n-sphere
planisphere
-sphere
spherical
spheroid
ball
Mathworld article on the sphere
PlanetMath article on the sphere
Derived words: Afrosphere
Alexander horned sphere
amylosphere
angiosphere
anthosphere
armillary sphere
asphere
astrosphere
Bloch sphere
bronchosphere
cardiosphere
carposphere
caulosphere
circumsphere
colonosphere
colosphere
conisphere
cosmosphere
cosphere
cryptosphere
crystal sphere
Debye sphere
demisphere
digisphere
diving sphere
Dyson sphere
ectosphere
endosphere
ensphere
enterosphere
episphere
esophagosphere
exotic sphere
fluorosphere
fold sphere
halfsphere
hemisphere
hepatosphere
Hill sphere
homology sphere
Hubble sphere
hypersphere
icosasphere
immunosphere
incelosphere
intersphere
Klerksdorp sphere
liposphere
macrosphere
medullosphere
megalosphere
memosphere
microsphere
microspherocyte
midsphere
minisphere
multisphere
myosphere
myrmecosphere
nanosphere
negasphere
nephrosphere
nonsphere
oblique sphere
oligosphere
orosphere
peanosphere
photon sphere
phycosphere
pneumosphere
polysphere
prostasphere
pseudosphere
public sphere pedagogy
radiansphere
Riemann sphere
semisphere
servosphere
skysphere
sociosphere
spermosphere
sphereing
sphereless
spherelike
sphere of influence
sphere of interest
sphere of knowledge
sphere packing
sphere-yeast
spheric
spherics
spherification
spherify
spherite
spherium
spherize
spherocylindrical
spheromak
sphery
sublunary sphere
subsphere
supersphere
thyrosphere
trochosphere
tumorsphere
undersphere
unit sphere
unsphere
xenosphere
Translations:
lang: Albanian
word: sferë
lang: Arabic
word: فَلْكَة
roman: falka
lang: Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
word: ܐܸܣܦܹܝܪܵܐ
roman: ispērā
lang: Aramaic
word: ܐܣܦܝܪܐ
roman: ʾespejrā
lang: Armenian
word: գունդ
roman: gund
lang: Asturian
word: esfera
lang: Bashkir
word: сфера
roman: sfera
lang: Basque
word: esfera
lang: Belarusian
word: сфе́ра
roman: sfjéra
lang: Belarusian
word: сфэ́ра
roman: sféra
lang: Bengali
word: গোলক
roman: gōlok
lang: Bulgarian
word: сфе́ра
roman: sféra
lang: Catalan
word: esfera
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 球體 /球体
roman: qiútǐ
lang: Czech
word: koule
lang: Danish
word: kugle
lang: Dutch
word: bol
lang: Esperanto
word: sfero
lang: Estonian
word: kera
lang: Estonian
word: sfäär
lang: Finnish
word: pallo
lang: French
word: sphère
lang: French
word: boule
lang: Galician
word: esfera
lang: Georgian
word: სფერო
roman: spero
lang: Georgian
word: ბურთი
roman: burti
lang: German
word: Kugel
lang: Greek
word: σφαίρα
roman: sfaíra
lang: Ancient Greek
word: σφαῖρα
roman: sphaîra
lang: Hebrew
word: כַּדּוּר
roman: kadúr
lang: Hebrew
word: סְפֶרָה
roman: sféra
lang: Hindi
word: गोला
roman: golā
lang: Hungarian
word: gömb
lang: Icelandic
word: hnöttur
lang: Indonesian
word: bola
lang: Ingrian
word: šaara
lang: Irish
word: sféar
lang: Italian
word: sfera
lang: Japanese
word: 球
roman: kyū
lang: Japanese
word: 球体
roman: kyūtai
lang: Kannada
word: ಗೋಳ
roman: gōḷa
lang: Korean
word: 구체
roman: guche
lang: Latin
word: globus
lang: Latvian
word: sfēra
lang: Latvian
word: lode
lang: Lithuanian
word: rutulys
lang: Lithuanian
word: sfera
lang: Macedonian
word: сфера
roman: sfera
lang: Malay
word: sfera
lang: Maltese
word: isfera
lang: Māori
word: poi
lang: Māori
word: kōpio
lang: Middle English
word: spere
lang: Mongolian
word: бөмбөрцөг
roman: bömbörcög
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: sfære
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: kule
lang: Norwegian Nynorsk
word: sfære
lang: Norwegian Nynorsk
word: kule
lang: Old English
word: trendel
lang: Pashto
word: پنډوس
roman: panḍos
lang: Pashto
word: غونډاری
roman: ǧunḍāray
lang: Dari
word: کُرَه
roman: kura
lang: Dari
word: گویْ
roman: gōy
lang: Iranian Persian
word: کُرِه
roman: kore
lang: Iranian Persian
word: گویْ
roman: guy
lang: Iranian Persian
word: سِپِهْر
roman: sepehr
lang: Plautdietsch
word: Baul
lang: Plautdietsch
word: Kjreiss
lang: Polish
word: sfera
lang: Portuguese
word: esfera
lang: Romanian
word: sferă
lang: Romanian
word: bilă
lang: Romanian
word: bol
lang: Russian
word: шар
roman: šar
lang: Russian
word: сфе́ра
roman: sféra
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: ку́гла
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: kúgla
lang: Slovak
word: guľa
lang: Slovak
word: sféra
lang: Slovene
word: krogla
lang: Spanish
word: esfera
lang: Spanish
word: bola
lang: Swahili
word: mviringo
lang: Swedish
word: klot
lang: Swedish
word: glob
lang: Swedish
word: sfär
lang: Telugu
word: గోళము
roman: gōḷamu
lang: Thai
word: ทรงกลม
roman: song-glom
lang: Turkish
word: küre
lang: Ukrainian
word: сфе́ра
roman: sféra
lang: Urdu
word: گولا
roman: golā
lang: Vietnamese
word: mặt cầu
lang: Welsh
word: sffêr