Parabola Definition

pə-răbə-lə
parabolas
noun
A plane curve which is the path, or locus, of a moving point that remains equally distant from a fixed point (focus) and from a fixed straight line (directrix); curve formed by the section of a cone cut by a plane parallel to the side of the cone.
Webster's New World

(rhetoric) The explicit drawing of a parallel between two essentially dissimilar things, especially with a moral or didactic purpose. A parable.

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Parabola

Noun

Singular:
parabola
Plural:
parabol, parabolas

Origin of Parabola

  • New Latin from Greek parabolē comparison, application, parabola (from the relationship between the line joining the vertices of a conic and the line through its focus and parallel to its directrix) from paraballein to compare parable

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Ancient Greek παραβολή (parabolÄ“), from παραβάλλω (paraballō, “I set side by side"), from παρά (para, “beside") + βάλλω (ballō, “I throw").

    From Wiktionary

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