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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. The hypothetical surface of the earth that coincides everywhere with mean sea level.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. An imaginary surface which coincides with the mean sea-level over the ocean, and extends under the continents everywhere at that level at which the mean surface of the sea would stand if it were allowed to flow in through a small subterranean canal. The geoid has no simple geometrical form, but bulges out from the mean spheroid in some places (under the continents and some of the deeper parts of the ocean) and is depressed beneath the mean spheroid in other places.
  2. n. See geode.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A surface of constant gravitational potential at zero elevation.

Etymologies

  1. German, from Greek geoeidēs, earthlike : , earth + -oeidēs, -oid. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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  • ruzuzu "There have been many definitions of the "geoid" over 150 years or so. Here is the one currently adopted at the National Geodetic Survey:

    geoid: The equipotential surface of the Earth's gravity field which best fits, in a least squares sense, global mean sea level

    Even though we adopt a definition, that does not mean we are perfect in the realization of that definition. For example, altimetry is often used to define "mean sea level" in the oceans, but altimetry is not global (missing the near polar regions). As such, the fit between "global" mean sea level and the geoid is not entirely confirmable. Also, there may be non-periodic changes in sea level (like a persistent rise in sea level, for example). If so, then "mean sea level" changes in time, and therefore the geoid should also change in time. These are just a few examples of the difficulty in defining "the geoid"."

    --What is the geoid?
    Mar 31, 2011

  • ruzuzu See discussion on potato Earth. Mar 31, 2011

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‘geoid’ has been looked up 2458 times, loved by 1 person, added to 6 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 7.