Word
diameter
Phoneticsdi·am·e·ter
US/daɪˈæmətɝ/
UK/daɪˈæmɪtɐ/
Definitions
01distance across a circle
n. the length of a straight line that goes from one side of a circle to the other, passing through the center.
n. the length of a straight line segment passing through the center of a figure, especially a circle or sphere, and terminating at the periphery.
“The pipe has a diameter of ten centimeters, so it should fit perfectly.”
“To calculate the circumference accurately, the engineer first measured the inner diameter of the cylinder using a digital caliper.”
Pitfall
The diameter from the circle is ten centimeters.
The diameter of the circle is ten centimeters.
Use the preposition 'of' to link the measurement to the object being measured.
Antonyms
02the line itself
n. a straight line that divides a circle into two equal halves by passing through the middle.
n. a chord that passes through the center of a circle or sphere.
“Draw a diameter across the circle to show where to cut the paper.”
“The geometry problem required students to construct a diameter that was perpendicular to the given chord.”
Synonyms
03maximum distance in a space
n. the largest possible distance between any two points in a specific area or shape.
n. the maximum distance between any two points in a metric space or the maximum eccentricity over all vertices in a graph.
“The diameter of this network is small, meaning any two points are closely connected.”
“In graph theory, the diameter of a graph is defined as the greatest distance between any pair of vertices.”
Technical
Usage
Used primarily in advanced mathematics, topology, and graph theory.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Old French diametre (French diamètre), from Latin diametros, from Ancient Greek διάμετρος (diámetros) (γραμμή (grammḗ)) (diametros grammē, “line measuring across”), from διά (diá, “across”) + μέτρον (métron, “measure”). By surface analysis, dia- + -meter.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/diameter