Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The path of a projectile or other moving body through space.
- n. A chosen or taken course: "What died with [the assassinated leaders] was a moral trajectory, a style of aspiration” ( Lance Morrow).
- n. Mathematics A curve that cuts all of a given family of curves or surfaces at the same angle.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The path described by a body moving under the action of given forces; specifically, the curve described by a projectile in its flight through the air. Compare range, 4.
- n. In geometry, a curve which cuts all the curves or surfaces of a given system at a constant angle. When the constant angle is a right angle, the trajectory is called an orthogonal trajectory.
Wiktionary
- n. The path of a body as it travels through space.
- n. The ordered set of intermediate states assumed by a dynamical system as a result of time evolution.
- n. Metaphorically, a course of development, such as that of a war or career.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The curve which a body describes in space, as a planet or comet in its orbit, or stone thrown upward obliquely in the air.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the path followed by an object moving through space
Etymologies
- New Latin trāiectōria, feminine of trāiectōrius, from Latin trāiectus, past participle of trāicere, to throw across; see traject.
Examples
“For example, in the context of the spectral decomposition version of the modal interpretation, Bacciagaluppi, Donald, and Vermaas (1995) show that the ˜trajectory™ (through Hilbert space) of the spectral components of the reduced state of a physical system will, under reasonable conditions, be continuous, or have only isolated discontinuities (so that the trajectory can be naturally extended to a continuous trajectory).”
“He said the trajectory is actually better coming out of this recession than those in the past but that it will take time for things to feel as if they 've improved.”
The Wall Street Journal: Top Geithner Adviser to Return to Academia
“If the later trajectory is chosen, heads of states and leaders from the private sector will soon realize that there are also major political, social and economic benefits to it: creating sustainable value.”
“Her impact on my professional trajectory is unquestionable.”
The Huffington Post: Gina Athena Ulysse: Teaching Black Feminism and Paying it Forward
“This depleted free-roaming populations and added to swelling populations of captive horses and burros whose care and management consumes nearly three-quarters of the program's entire budget, putting it on a long-term trajectory of financial ruin.”
“I agree that the learning trajectory is essentially learner ‘designed’, learner motivated, and idiosyncratic.”
“The whipsaw week may still leave collectors questioning the long-term trajectory of the overall art market, but the mood in Sotheby's York Avenue salesroom was palpably lively, with four or five bidders often locking horns over individual works.”
The Wall Street Journal: Sotheby's Rallies With $199.8 Million Sale
“The net effect [pdf] is that our energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions would decrease only "slightly" in 2035 (compared to the central scenario developed in last year's World Energy Outlook [pdf]), putting emissions on a long-term trajectory consistent with stabilizing atmospheric CO2 at around 650 parts per million, and suggesting a long-term temperature rise of more than 3.5 degrees Celsius.”
The Huffington Post: Bill Chameides: Energy Agency's 'Golden Age' for Gas
“Seeing cultural movement and exchange and feeling its trajectory is an exciting thing.”
“I can shoot double the rounds before my barrel gets too hot and I really can't tell a big difference in trajectory to be honest.”
It looks like I will order the ER Shaw rifle soon. Can't decide between 223, 22-250 or 243.
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘trajectory’.
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Up In The Air @ Wordnik
List of words, terms, and phrases pertaining to or referencing anything that lives, traverses, moves in, uses, or otherwise occupies the space above the ground we walk on. Words and phrases contain...
aeroallergen, aerial, aerial mapping, aerial root, aerobe, aerobiology, aerobioscope, aelophilous, anemotropism, anemoclastic, anafront, antitrades and 270 more...
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Conspiracies
...And all that heavy metal.
kurt cobain, courtney love, tom grant, exodus rehab clinic, california, seattle, record industry e..., military industri..., mic, yugoslavia, heroin, credit cards and 201 more...
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lasers
words associated with LASERS.
NOTE: i'd like to keep the list specific to the LASER itself (Any LASER), and leave out applied sciences..
sparsely added, clever and witty entries ...electromagnetism, light, wavelength, phase, frequency, polarization, emission, optical, spectroscopy, lase, crystal, projection and 61 more...
Louises When Jake leaped, his trajectory made an arc that framed Grainer for me in weird vividness. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan.
Mar 30, 2012
chained_bear Love this word. Love it, love it, love it. I even got to use it at work today. Alsome. Oct 26, 2007