EQUATORIAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does equatorial mean? 

• EQUATORIAL (noun)
  The noun EQUATORIAL has 1 sense:

1. a telescope whose mounting has only two axes of motion, one parallel to the Earth's axis and the other one at right angles to it

  Familiarity information: EQUATORIAL used as a noun is very rare.

• EQUATORIAL (adjective)
  The adjective EQUATORIAL has 3 senses:

1. of or relating to or at an equator

2. of or relating to conditions at the geographical equator

3. of or existing at or near the geographic equator

  Familiarity information: EQUATORIAL used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EQUATORIAL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A telescope whose mounting has only two axes of motion, one parallel to the Earth's axis and the other one at right angles to it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("equatorial" is a kind of...):

scope; telescope (a magnifier of images of distant objects)

• EQUATORIAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of or relating to or at an equator

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

equatorial diameter

Pertainym:

equator (a circle dividing a sphere or other surface into two usually equal and symmetrical parts)

Derivation:

equator (a circle dividing a sphere or other surface into two usually equal and symmetrical parts)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Of or relating to conditions at the geographical equator

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

equatorial heat

Pertainym:

equator (an imaginary line around the Earth forming the great circle that is equidistant from the north and south poles)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Of or existing at or near the geographic equator

Context example:

equatorial Africa

Similar:

pantropic; pantropical (distributed throughout the tropics)

tropic; tropical (relating to or situated in or characteristic of the tropics (the region on either side of the equator))

Antonym:

polar (of or existing at or near a geographical pole or within the Arctic or Antarctic Circles)

Derivation:

equator (an imaginary line around the Earth forming the great circle that is equidistant from the north and south poles)

 Context examples 

Cassini officially began its new set of equatorial orbits on March 16.

(Saturn Spacecraft Returns to the Realm of Icy Moons, NASA)

A clinical variant of Burkitt lymphoma that occurs in equatorial Africa.

(Endemic Burkitt Lymphoma, NCI Thesaurus)

As oceans warm, cooler subtropical environments are becoming more favorable for corals than the equatorial waters where they traditionally thrived.

(Coral reefs shifting away from equatorial waters, National Science Foundation)

They indicate that conditions at the rover's near-equatorial location were favorable for small quantities of brine to form during some nights throughout the year, drying out again after sunrise.

(Mars Rover's Weather Data Bolster Case for Brine, NASA)

Researchers were able to discern an equatorial jet “with dramatically variable wind speeds,” that push “vast amounts of cloud across the planet.”

(Exoplanet Could Have Clouds of Rubies, Sapphires, VOA)

Wilson's team concentrated on those equatorial areas, particularly with a 600-mile (1,000-kilometer) stretch of loose, easily erodible material between the northern lowlands and southern highlands along the Medusae Fossae Formation.

(A Fresh Look at Older Data Yields a Surprise Near the Martian Equator, NASA)

The second phase of mitosis, in which the chromosomes line up across the equatorial plane of the spindle prior to separation.

(Metaphase Process, NCI Thesaurus)

Data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft has revealed what appear to be giant dust storms in equatorial regions of Saturn's moon Titan.

(Dust Storms on Titan Spotted for the First Time, NASA)

A team led by scientists from Cardiff University has predicted that fields of sharp ice growing to almost 15 metres tall could be scattered across the equatorial regions of Jupiter's moon, Europa.

(Icy Warning for Space Missions to Jupiter's Moon, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Because equatorial regions receive approximately two times more UVR than more temperate regions, darker pigmentation in people from these regions is thought to reduce skin damage and cancer.

(New regions of the human genome linked to skin color variation in some African populations, National Institutes of Health)