Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Relating to or composed of right angles.
- adj. Mathematics Of or relating to a matrix whose transpose equals its inverse.
- adj. Mathematics Of or relating to a linear transformation that preserves the length of vectors.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Pertaining to or depending upon the use of right angles.
- Right-angled.
Wiktionary
- adj. pertaining to right angles; perpendicular (to)
- adj. Of two functions, linearly independent; having a zero inner product.
- adj. The normal vector and tangent vector at a given point are orthogonal.
- adj. Of a square matrix that is the inverse of its transpose
- adj. Of a linear transformation that preserves angles
- adj. statistically independent, with reference to variates
- adj. Able to be treated separately.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Right-angled; rectangular.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. statistically unrelated
- adj. having a set of mutually perpendicular axes; meeting at right angles
- adj. not pertinent to the matter under consideration
Etymologies
- From Greek orthogōnios : ortho-, ortho- + gōniā, angle; see genu-1 in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Matthew C, the reason they are supposed to be orthogonal is because g is the correlation among all the tests.”
I'll Defend IQ, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“I have never been described as orthogonal - and yet it is such a good descriptor for how I see the world”
“These are the so-called orthogonal transformations.”
“But birds were believed to support, as well as to raise, themselves in the air chiefly by what in the jargon of science is called orthogonal flight, that is, by direct downward flapping of the wings.”
The War in the Air; Vol. 1 The Part played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force
“Most emerging wireless technologies use a technique called orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) to increase data transmission rates.”
“You use the phrase "orthogonal" and then accuse me of being "self-important?”
Report Says Current 520 Plan “Virtually Precludes” Rail in the Future « PubliCola
“As someone who loves anagrams I just had to point out that the word "orthogonal" divides into "Orthon" and "gal".”
“Maybe they could be decomposed into some kind of orthogonal set, but the fact that the landscape keeps changing in time suggests certainly on the scale of a microorganism that the transition from one dimension to another is extremely easy.”
“So it's really kind of orthogonal for us to some extent move up partner with PMCCL [ph] and kind of the EPON and 10G-EPON space really more around our Access business because Verizon using GPON, so we basically partner with BroadLight so the GPON business in Verizon and then partner more with PMCCL for the EPON and 10G-EPON.”
“James used the term "orthogonal" when talking about the crossover between process and rules; I used this same expression in a discussion with him yesterday in discussing how processes and decisions should not be dependent upon each other: if a decision and a process are interdependent, then you're likely dealing with a process decision that should be embedded within the process, rather than a business decision.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘orthogonal’.
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Technologos
Cool technology-related words.
transclusion, interpolation, hypertext, munge, arpabet, dissemination, meta, orthogonal, discombobulated, postcyberpunk, asynchronicity, octothorpe and 27 more...
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Forgettables
Words with meanings I just can't seem to remember, no matter how many times I look them up.
esoteric, allegorical, zeitgeist, ersatz, stalwart, orthogonal, offal, peripatetic, definiendum, panacea, gregarious, verticals and 3 more...
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Not Your Typical
wanderlust, querdenker, dodrantal, soporific, vicious, ampersand, desiderative, cynosure, sybaritic, ubiquitous, orthogonal, lacuna and 68 more...
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Consultant-speak "look at me" words that make m...
Words you have heard a consultant (or anyone, really) use - needlessly - not to further understanding, but to impress the listener.
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