Find the word definition

Crossword clues for meridian

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
meridian
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ By the late 1870s, the hundredth meridian had been fatefully crossed.
▪ Even if you are sceptical about meridians, there's no denying that the roller gives an enjoyable massage.
▪ Ptolemy was free, however, to lay his prime meridian, the zero-degree longitude line, wherever he liked.
▪ Seventh, there may be blocks to the flow of electrical energy in the acupuncture meridians.
▪ She marked the meridians, numbered the latitudes and longitudes, and added a curlicue of compass points to make it navigable.
▪ The flows of life energy in the body along the meridians are thus adjusted and balanced at certain very carefully chosen spots.
▪ The measurement of longitude meridians, in comparison, is tempered by time.
▪ The placement of the prime meridian is a purely political decision.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Meridian

Meridian \Me*rid"i*an\, n. [F. m['e]ridien. See Meridian, a.]

  1. Midday; noon.

  2. Hence: The highest point, as of success, prosperity, or the like; culmination.

    I have touched the highest point of all my greatness, And from that full meridian of my glory I haste now to my setting.
    --Shak.

  3. (Astron.) A great circle of the sphere passing through the poles of the heavens and the zenith of a given place. It is crossed by the sun at midday.

  4. (Geog.) A great circle on the surface of the earth, passing through the poles and any given place; also, the half of such a circle included between the poles.

    Note: The planes of the geographical and astronomical meridians coincide. Meridians, on a map or globe, are lines drawn at certain intervals due north and south, or in the direction of the poles.

    Calculated for the meridian of, or fitted to the meridian of, or adapted to the meridian of, suited to the local circumstances, capabilities, or special requirements of.

    All other knowledge merely serves the concerns of this life, and is fitted to the meridian thereof.
    --Sir M. Hale.

    First meridian or prime meridian, the meridian from which longitudes are reckoned. The meridian of Greenwich is the one commonly employed in calculations of longitude by geographers, and in actual practice, although in various countries other and different meridians, chiefly those which pass through the capitals of the countries, are occasionally used; as, in France, the meridian of Paris; in the United States, the meridian of Washington, etc.

    Guide meridian (Public Land Survey), a line, marked by monuments, running North and South through a section of country between other more carefully established meridians called principal meridians, used for reference in surveying. [U.S.]

    Magnetic meridian, a great circle, passing through the zenith and coinciding in direction with the magnetic needle, or a line on the earth's surface having the same direction.

    Meridian circle (Astron.), an instrument consisting of a telescope attached to a large graduated circle and so mounted that the telescope revolves like the transit instrument in a meridian plane. By it the right ascension and the declination of a star may be measured in a single observation.

    Meridian instrument (Astron.), any astronomical instrument having a telescope that rotates in a meridian plane.

    Meridian of a globe, or Brass meridian, a graduated circular ring of brass, in which the artificial globe is suspended and revolves.

Meridian

Meridian \Me*rid"i*an\, a. [F. m['e]ridien, L. meridianus pertaining to noon, fr. meridies noon, midday, for older medidies; medius mid, middle + dies day. See Mid, and Diurnal.]

  1. Being at, or pertaining to, midday; belonging to, or passing through, the highest point attained by the sun in his diurnal course. ``Meridian hour.''
    --Milton.

    Tables . . . to find the altitude meridian.
    --Chaucer.

  2. Pertaining to the highest point or culmination; as, meridian splendor.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
meridian

mid-14c., "noon," from Old French meridien "of the noon time, midday; the Meridian; southerner" (12c.), and directly from Latin meridianus "of midday, of noon, southerly, to the south," from meridies "noon, south," from meridie "at noon," altered by dissimilation from pre-Latin *medi die, locative of medius "mid-" (see medial (adj.)) + dies "day" (see diurnal). Cartographic sense first recorded late 14c. Figurative uses tend to suggest "point of highest development or fullest power."\n

\nThe city in Mississippi, U.S., was settled 1854 (as Sowashee Station) at a railway junction and given its current name in 1860, supposedly by people who thought meridian meant "junction" (they perhaps confused the word with median).

Wiktionary
meridian

a. 1 meridional; relating to a meridian. 2 Relating to noon 3 Relating to the highest point or culmination. n. 1 An imaginary great circle on the Earth's surface, passing through the geographic poles. 2 Either half of such a great circle, all points of which have the same longitude. 3 (context astronomy English) A great circle passing through the poles of the celestial sphere and the zenith for a particular observer. 4 (context mathematics English) A similar line on any general surface of revolution. 5 (context alternative medicine English) Any of the pathways on the body along which the vital energy is thought to flow and, therefore, the acupoints are distributed. 6 The highest point, as of success, prosperity, etc.; culmination. 7 (context printing US dated) The size of type between double great primer and canon, standardized as 44-point.

WordNet
meridian
  1. adj. of or happening at noon; "meridian hour"

  2. n. a town in eastern Mississippi

  3. an imaginary great circle on the surface of the earth passing through the north and south poles at right angles to the equator; "all points on the same meridian have the same longitude" [syn: longitude, line of longitude]

Gazetteer
Meridian, NY -- U.S. village in New York
Population (2000): 350
Housing Units (2000): 120
Land area (2000): 0.692018 sq. miles (1.792318 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 0.692018 sq. miles (1.792318 sq. km)
FIPS code: 46646
Located within: New York (NY), FIPS 36
Location: 43.163531 N, 76.535045 W
ZIP Codes (1990):
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Meridian, NY
Meridian
Meridian, CO -- U.S. Census Designated Place in Colorado
Population (2000): 184
Housing Units (2000): 140
Land area (2000): 7.610856 sq. miles (19.712025 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.000962 sq. miles (0.002492 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 7.611818 sq. miles (19.714517 sq. km)
FIPS code: 50012
Located within: Colorado (CO), FIPS 08
Location: 39.548714 N, 104.850969 W
ZIP Codes (1990):
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Meridian, CO
Meridian
Meridian, ID -- U.S. city in Idaho
Population (2000): 34919
Housing Units (2000): 12293
Land area (2000): 11.788751 sq. miles (30.532723 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 11.788751 sq. miles (30.532723 sq. km)
FIPS code: 52120
Located within: Idaho (ID), FIPS 16
Location: 43.614229 N, 116.398963 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 83642
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Meridian, ID
Meridian
Meridian, OK -- U.S. town in Oklahoma
Population (2000): 54
Housing Units (2000): 31
Land area (2000): 0.198858 sq. miles (0.515041 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 0.198858 sq. miles (0.515041 sq. km)
FIPS code: 47800
Located within: Oklahoma (OK), FIPS 40
Location: 35.843545 N, 97.246625 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 73058
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Meridian, OK
Meridian
Meridian, OK -- U.S. Census Designated Place in Oklahoma
Population (2000): 1485
Housing Units (2000): 643
Land area (2000): 7.631141 sq. miles (19.764563 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.009790 sq. miles (0.025357 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 7.640931 sq. miles (19.789920 sq. km)
FIPS code: 47810
Located within: Oklahoma (OK), FIPS 40
Location: 34.416951 N, 97.969636 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 73058
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Meridian, OK
Meridian
Meridian, PA -- U.S. Census Designated Place in Pennsylvania
Population (2000): 3794
Housing Units (2000): 1524
Land area (2000): 2.836236 sq. miles (7.345817 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.004892 sq. miles (0.012669 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 2.841128 sq. miles (7.358486 sq. km)
FIPS code: 48728
Located within: Pennsylvania (PA), FIPS 42
Location: 40.854415 N, 79.956359 W
ZIP Codes (1990):
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Meridian, PA
Meridian
Meridian, TX -- U.S. city in Texas
Population (2000): 1491
Housing Units (2000): 600
Land area (2000): 2.163088 sq. miles (5.602372 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.005137 sq. miles (0.013304 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 2.168225 sq. miles (5.615676 sq. km)
FIPS code: 47760
Located within: Texas (TX), FIPS 48
Location: 31.924649 N, 97.656668 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 76665
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Meridian, TX
Meridian
Meridian, MS -- U.S. city in Mississippi
Population (2000): 39968
Housing Units (2000): 17890
Land area (2000): 45.117740 sq. miles (116.854406 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.752075 sq. miles (1.947864 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 45.869815 sq. miles (118.802270 sq. km)
FIPS code: 46640
Located within: Mississippi (MS), FIPS 28
Location: 32.374841 N, 88.704160 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 39301 39305 39307
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Meridian, MS
Meridian
Wikipedia
Meridian

Meridian, or a meridian line may refer to

Meridian (astronomy)

An (astronomical) meridian is the great circle passing through the celestial poles, the zenith, and the nadir of a particular location. Consequently, it contains also the horizon's north and south points, and it is perpendicular to the celestial equator and to the celestial horizon. A celestial meridian matches the projection, onto the celestial sphere, of a terrestrial meridian. Hence there are an infinite number of astronomical meridians.

The meridian is undefined when the observer is at the North Pole or South Pole, since at these two points, the zenith and nadir are on the celestial poles, and any great circle passing the celestial poles passes the zenith and nadir.

There are several ways in which the meridian can be divided into semicircles. In one way, it is divided into the local meridian and the antimeridian. The former semicircle contains the zenith and is terminated by the celestial poles; the latter semicircle contains the nadir. In the horizontal coordinate system the meridian is divided into halves terminated by the horizon's north and south points. The upper meridian passes through the zenith, and the lower meridian, through the nadir.

A celestial object will appear to drift past the local meridian as the Earth spins, for the meridian is fixed to the local horizon. The object reaches its highest point in the sky when crossing the meridian ( culmination). Using an object's right ascension and the local sidereal time it is possible to determine the time of its culmination. (See hour angle).

The term "meridian" comes from the Latin meridies, which means both "midday" and "south".

Meridian (geography)

A (geographical) meridian (or line of longitude) is the half of an imaginary great circle on the Earth's surface, terminated by the North Pole and the South Pole, connecting points of equal longitude. The position of a point along the meridian is given by its latitude. Each meridian is perpendicular to all circles of latitude. Each is also the same length, being half of a great circle on the Earth's surface and therefore measuring 20,003.93 km (12,429.9 miles).

Meridian (Chinese medicine)

The meridian system (, also called channel network) is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) belief about a path through which the life-energy known as " qi" flows.

Acupuncture points and meridians have not been proven. Much of the research exploring acupuncture points and potential benefits are newly emerging. Larger and more diverse random control trials (RCT) are needed.

Meridian (comics)

Meridian was a comic book series published by CrossGen Comics. It was written by Barbara Kesel, and penciled by a number of artists including Joshua Middleton and Steve McNiven. Meridian ran for 44 issues, from July of 2000 to April of 2004.

Meridian (perimetry, visual field)

Meridian (plural: "meridians") is used in perimetry and in specifying visual fields. According to IPS Perimetry Standards 1978 (2002): " Perimetry is the measurement of [an observer's] visual functions ... at topographically defined loci in the visual field. The visual field is that portion of the external environment of the observer [in which when he or she is] steadily fixating ...[he or she] can detect visual stimuli."

In perimetry, the observer's eye is considered to be at the centre of an imaginary sphere. More precisely, the centre of the sphere is in the centre of the pupil of the observer's eye. The observer is looking at a point, the fixation point, on the interior of the sphere. The visual field can be considered to be all parts of the sphere for which the observer can see a particular test stimulus. If we consider this surface to be that on which an observer can see anything, then it is a section of the sphere somewhat larger than a hemisphere. In reality it is smaller than this, and irregular, because when the observer is looking straight ahead, his or her nose blocks vision of some possible parts of the surface. In perimetric testing, a section of the imaginary sphere is realized as a hemisphere in the centre of which is a fixation point. Test stimuli can be displayed on the hemisphere.

To specify loci in the visual field, a polar coordinate system is used, all expressed from the observer's perspective. The origin corresponds to the point on which the observer is fixating. The polar angle is considered to be zero degrees when a locus is horizontally to the right of the fixation point and to increase to a maximum of 360 degrees going anticlockwise. Distance from the origin is given in degrees of visual angle; it's a measure of eccentricity. Each polar axis is a meridian of the visual field. For example, the horizontal meridian runs from the observer's left, through the fixation point, and to the observer's right. The vertical meridian runs from above the observer's line of sight, through the fixation point, and to below the observer's line of sight.

Another way of thinking of the maximum visual field is to think of all of the retina that can be reached by light from the external environment. The visual field in this case is all of the external environment that can project light onto the retina. Meridians correspond to sections of great circles passing though the centre of the fovea. In an analogy to Meridian (geography), in which meridians are lines of longitude, the North pole might correspond to the fovea, Greenwich would correspond to a retinal location about 39 degrees to the left of the fovea (because the retinal image is inverted, this corresponds to a location in the visual field to the observer's right), and the South pole would correspond to the centre of the pupil.

The meridian of the visual field has been found to influence the folding of the cerebral cortex. In both the V1 and V2 areas of macaques and humans the vertical meridian of their visual field tends to be represented on the cerebral cortex's convex gyri folds whereas the horizontal meridian is tends to be represented in their concave sulci folds.

Meridian (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

__NOTOC__ "Meridian" is the 54th episode of the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the eighth episode of the third season.

Dax falls in love with a man whose world is in a state of flux; Quark tries to create a holographic pleasure program "starring" Major Kira.

Meridian (novel)

Meridian is a 1976 novel by American author Alice Walker. It has been described as Walker's "meditation on the modern civil rights movement."

Meridian (satellite)

Meridian (satellite) is a Russian Communication satellite system, consisting over several satellites:

  • Meridian 1
  • Meridian 2
  • Meridian 3
  • Meridian 4
  • Meridian 5
  • Meridian 6
  • Meridian 7
Meridian (horse)

Meridian (1908–1935) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse that won the 1911 Kentucky Derby, setting a new record by running 1 miles in 2 minutes, 5 seconds. The previous record of 2:06 had been set by Lieut. Gibson in the 1900 Derby. Meridian was determined to be the historical Champion Three-Year Old and Horse of the Year of 1911.

Meridian (shipwreck)

The Meridian was a schooner that sank in Lake Michigan off the coast of Sister Bay, Wisconsin. In 1996, the shipwreck site was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Meridian (Hepworth)

Meridian (BH 250) is a bronze sculpture by British artist Barbara Hepworth. It is an early example of her public commissions, commissioned for State House, a new 16-storey office block constructed at 66–71 High Holborn, London, in the early 1960s. The sculpture was made in 1958–59, and erected in 1960. When the building was demolished in 1990, the sculpture was sold and moved to the Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens in Purchase, New York.

The sculpture resembles a distorted spiral with ribbons of bronze forming triangular loops. Hepworth intended the fluid lines of the sculpture to contrast with the rigidity of the building's rectilinear architecture. The title of the work refers either to an imaginary line of longitude (like the Greenwich meridian), or to the highest point reached by the sun. It was influenced by Tachism, a French style of abstract art, and it may have been inspired by a work entitled 1953, August 11 (meridian) painted a few years before by Hepworth's former second husband, the artist Ben Nicholson.

Earlier in her career, Hepworth preferred to work directly in wood and stone, but from the mid-1950s she started to work more indirectly in bronze using preparatory models. In 1958, Lilian Somerville of the British Council was organising an exhibition at the São Paulo Art Biennial in late 1959 (where Hepworth would win the Grand Prix). Somerville suggested Hepworth to the architect Harold Mortimer from Trehearne & Norman Preston & Partners responsible for State House; he had been considering other sculptors, including Lynn Chadwick. Mortimer commissioned Hepworth to create a sculpture to fill a space near the main entrance of the new building.

She made a first maquette – a plaster model (BH 245) – and then a second maquette – Maquette (Variation on a Theme) (BH 247) – each of which was later cast in bronze in an edition of 9. She moved on to a one-third scale model, Garden Sculpture (Model for Meridian) (BH 246), high, made using an armature of expanded aluminium covered with plaster, cast in a edition of 6 by Morris Singer in 1960. Finally, from 1958, she constructed a full-size armature in wood at Lanham's Sale Rooms near her Trewyn Studio in St Ives, Cornwall, which was covered with plaster by early 1959. A unique example was cast in bronze in several pieces and then assembled at the Susse Frères foundry in Paris later in 1959, and erected in London in 1960, standing in front of a curved guarding wall of Cornish granite beside the main entrance to State House. The full-size sculpture stands high (46 metres). It was unveiled in March 1960 by Sir Philip Hendy, then Director of the National Gallery.

Hepworth made relatively little profit on the unique full-size sculpture, defrayed by selling bronzes of the maquettes, but the success of the sculpture led to the commission for Winged Figure, still displayed outside the John Lewis building in Oxford Street.

When State House was demolished in 1990 to make way for MidCity Place, the sculpture was sold and moved to the Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens at the world headquarters of PepsiCo in Purchase, New York (which also has an example of her 1970 sculpture Family of Man).

Meridian (commuter rail)

Meridian is the brand name of a German commuter rail service operated by railway company Bayerische Oberlandbahn (BOB) and owned by Transdev. Since December 2013 Meridian operates three lines in Bavaria, from Munich to Salzburg, Rosenheim and Kufstein.

In 2011 Bayerische Eisenbahngesellschaft signed a contract with Transdev (then Veolia Transport) to operate the "E-network Rosenheim" from December 2013, replacing previous operator DB Regio Bayern. Services run out of Munich on the Munich–Rosenheim and Munich–Holzkirchen railway lines, and out of Rosenheim on the Rosenheim–Salzburg, Rosenheim–Kufstein and Mangfall Valley lines.

Meridian operates a fleet of 35 FLIRT3 electric multiple units from Stadler Rail.

Usage examples of "meridian".

Meridian and her brother, along with several dozen others, had come east from the area around the coastal village of March Brume to serve the Federation in this one.

This obvious difference marked the two portions of the empire with a distinction of colors, which, though it was in some degree concealed during the meridian splendor of prosperity, became gradually more visible, as the shades of night descended upon the Roman world.

Meridian, entelechy of the seventh sphere, lord of dream and shadow, faced his would-be assassin little strengthened.

And without glancing at the meridians on the side of the chart, Gundy gave the latitude and longitude.

What Cyrus Harding was to do to ascertain the passage of the sun at the meridian of the island, without an instrument of any sort, Herbert could not guess.

Cyrus Harding announced this result to his companions, and taking into consideration errors of observation, as he had done for the latitude, he believed he could positively affirm that the position of Lincoln Island was between the thirty-fifth and the thirty-seventh parallel, and between the hundred and fiftieth and the hundred and fifty-fifth meridian to the west of the meridian of Greenwich.

Their lands lay along the river Liger between its confluence with the Caris and a point on about the same meridian of longitude as modern Paris.

His eyes were no longer focused on meridians, parallels, and rhumb lines.

Atlantic and the 100th meridian west, clover seeds may be sown in one form or another from early spring until the early autumn without incurring much hazard from winter killing in the young plants, but here also early spring sowing will prove the most satisfactory.

Payment for the turtle and the bottles of Old Veuve was performed apart with Benjamin, while Simeon Fenellan strolled out of the house, questioning a tumbled mind as to what description of suitable entertainment, which would be dancing and flirting and fal-lallery in the season of youth, London City could provide near meridian hours for a man of middle age carrying his bottle of champagne, like a guest of an oldfashioned wedding-breakfast.

So I spoke readily enough with the captain of my vessel about the sea compass and the meridian compass, the astrolabe and the cross-staff, but when I discoursed with him upon eccentricity and parallax, he told me in a few words that he was master of ebbs or floods and not of instruments.

So, referring again to the time when the Sun entered the Autumnal Equinox, there are nine remarkable Stars that come to the meridian nearly at the same time, rising as Libra sets, and so seeming to chase that Constellation.

In such instances, the beautifying tinges of romance, that streak and flush the horizon, neither fade into the grayness of fact, nor die into the darkness of neglect, but now broaden and deepen into the blue of meridian assurance, now clarify and ascend into the starlight of faith and mystery.

SASHA would be leaving four rolls of microfilm, fifty exposures to a roll, in a hollowed-out brick hidden in the bushes behind the James Buchanan statue in Meridian Hill Park.

By the righteousness of God, the True One, the testimony shown forth by His Remembrance is like unto a sun which the hand of the merciful Lord hath raised high in the midmost heart of the heaven, wherefrom it shineth in the plenitude of its meridian splendour.