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  1. geodesy love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. The geologic science of the size and shape of the earth.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Formerly, the art of land-surveying in general, but now restricted to that branch of applied mathematics, distinctively called higher geodesy, which investigates the figures and areas of large portions of the earth's surface, the exact determinations of geographical positions and the azimuths of directions, the general figure of the earth, and the variations of the intensity of gravity in different regions, by means of direct observation and measurement. The operations of topography and hydrography are now considered as extraneous to geodesy, but leveling of the most precise kind is included, as well as the observation of the tides. Also geodetics.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Scientific discipline that deals with the measurement and representation of earth, its gravitational field and geodynamic phenomena (polar motion, earth tides, and crustal motion) in three‐dimensional, time‐varying space.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Math.) That branch of applied mathematics which determines, by means of observations and measurements, the figures and areas of large portions of the earth's surface, or the general figure and dimenshions of the earth; or that branch of surveying in which the curvature of the earth is taken into account, as in the surveys of States, or of long lines of coast.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. the branch of geology that studies the shape of the earth and the determination of the exact position of geographical points

Etymologies

  1. From French géodésie, from Medieval Latin geōdaesia, from Ancient Greek γεωδαισία, from γῆ (gē, "earth") + δαίω (daiō, "to divide"). (Wiktionary)
  2. New Latin geōdaesia, from Greek geōdaisiā : geō-, geo- + daiesthai, to divide; see dā- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Time is important in geodesy and we use all kinds of clocks.”

    Archive 2009-01-01

  • “Just curious, is there a particular subset of quasars that are typically used in geodesy?”

    URSI Update #2

  • “I suppose few of you know what geodesy is let alone understand how Vanguard 1 or any other space technology improved this particular branch of geoscience.”

    Vanguard 1

  • “Naming it after the Persian polymath who is considered by some the father of geodesy and geology and who calculated the radius of Earth to about 17 km of its actual value 500 years before anyone in Europe figured it out would go a long way to acknowledge that people in the Middle East also have made great contributions to the knowledge of mankind just as Galileo and Cassini have. former CA resident”

    Name That Rover - NASA Watch

  • “One approach, which is expensive and not yet widely applied, is called seafloor geodesy.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Scientists Misjudged Quake Potential

  • “It also emphasizes the need to do seafloor geodesy.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Scientists Misjudged Quake Potential

  • “We could produce weather visualizations for any country or the whole world, taking advantage of the new integrated geodesy system to visualize in Mercator or any other cartographic projection.”

    Wolfram Blog : Visualizing Weather Patterns in Mathematica 7

  • “Datum remains standard and retains the general meaning of “a unit of information”, though it tends to appear mostly in academic and specialist disciplines such as philosophy, surveying, geodesy, topography, technical drawing, and cartography:”

    Data is data, or are they?

  • “The technology has transformed geodesy, but for it to work, a GPS-enabled device must be present at the site of whatever is being measured—on the bank of a river, say, or at the top of Everest.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Why Measure a Mountain? Because It's There

  • “As much as climbing the Himalayan peak is a signature accomplishment for mountaineers, so measuring it accurately is a signature goal for scientists in the field of geodesy, or the measurement of Earth.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Why Measure a Mountain? Because It's There

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hypernyms (2)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. geophysical science
  1. geophysics

rhymes (2)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Odyssey
  1. odyssey

reverse dictionary (17)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. geodetic
  2. geod
  3. geodetics
  1. geodesia
  2. hypsometry
  3. geodetician
  1. geodesic
  2. geodesist
  3. geodetically
  1. gauss
  2. geodesical
  3. karl friedrich gauss
  1. karl gauss
  2. geodetic surveying
  3. circle
  1. geodesy
  2. round

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  1. geo-

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Comments

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  • ruzuzu "en discipline that deals with the measurement and representation of en, its en field and en phenomena (polar motion, earth tides, and crustal motion) in three‐dimensional, time‐varying space."
    --Wiktionary Nov 7, 2012

  • seanahan I would say it (geo-DESsy) or (gee-AH-duh-see), but it looks like the Odyssey pronunciation is deemed "correct". Dec 31, 2009

  • seanahan I've always thought that the person who studies this should be a geodeist. Oct 23, 2007

  • seanahan The science and math dealing with the size and shape of the earth. Oct 23, 2007

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‘geodesy’ has been looked up 1099 times, loved by 1 person, added to 12 lists, commented on 4 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.