dimension

A single aspect of a given thing.

Noun

  1. A single aspect of a given thing.
    • This film can be enjoyed on many dimensions - the script is great, the acting is realistic, and the special effects will simply take you aback.
  2. A measure of spatial extent in a particular direction, such as height, width or breadth, or depth.
    • However, tubes of the same dimensions also look like solid cylinders, because their ovals are automatically treated as the top or bottom faces of solids. - 1985 November 19, Erik Sandberg-Diment, “PERSONAL COMPUTERS;...
    • I can tell you that in your universe you move freely in three dimensions that you call space. […] After that it gets a bit complicated, and there's all sort of stuff going on in dimensions thirteen to twenty-two that...
    • We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human...
  3. A construct whereby objects or individuals can be distinguished.
  4. The number of independent coordinates needed to specify uniquely the location of a point in a space; also, any of such independent coordinates.
  5. The number of elements of any basis of a vector space.
  6. One of the physical properties that are regarded as fundamental measures of a physical quantity, such as mass, length and time.
    • The dimension of velocity is length divided by time.
  7. Any of the independent ranges of indices in a multidimensional array.
  8. A universe or plane of existence.
    • a machine that lets you travel to a parallel dimension.
    • "If a man should wish to be in some other place, it is entirely possible for him to imagine himself in that place and, diving back through the negative dimension, to emerge out of it in that place with instantaneous...
    • DR. PAUL MANHEIM: I have been on the other side. I have touched another dimension. Part of me is still there. LAURA MANHEIM: Help him. DR. CRUSHER: Try to stay calm Dr. Manheim. I don't think it's going to help you're...

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *d(w)is- Proto-Italic *dis- Latin dis- Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- Proto-Italic *mētis Latin mētior Latin dīmētior Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin dīmēnsiōder. English dimension Derived from Latin dīmēnsiō.

Forms

dimensions

Synonyms

aspect magnitude proportion size scope construct whereby objects individuals can be distinguished

Related

hyperdimension

Derived

3-D 3-dimensional 4-dimensional box-counting dimension codimension correlation dimension dimensionable dimensional dimensional analysis dimensionality dimensional shingle dimensionful dimensionless dimension lumber dimension stone dimensionwise dimension work eigendimension exterior dimension four-dimensional fourth dimension fractal dimension Hamel dimension Hausdorff dimension

Verb

  1. To mark, cut or shape something to specified dimensions.
    • Nameless and formless the Spirit within shines forth, unconditioned and everlasting. What name is befitting the soul? How shall Infinite Effulgence be manifested? Too great a light blinds the senses. Too great a truth...
    • The mechanical drawing artist almost automatically lays down a triangle in order to draw a line in the desired place. Data entry for AutoCAD, by contrast, requires you to think in terms of coordinate positions rather...
    • Some people muse over real estate listings in the Sunday paper, looking at floor plans for apartments they could never afford, looking at an idea of what their life might be like with a properly dimensioned foyer. -...
  2. To specify the size of (an array or similar data structure); to allocate.
    • Dimension an array to hold only as much data as you intend to put into it. - 2002, James D. Foxall, Wendy Haro-Chun, SAMS Teach Yourself C# in 24 Hours, page 268:

    Hyponyms: redimension

Forms

dimensions dimensioning dimensioned