Rectilinear definition

rĕktə-lĭnē-ər
Moving in a straight line.
adjective
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Moving in, consisting of, bounded by, or characterized by a straight line or lines.

Following a rectilinear path; rectilinear patterns in wallpaper.

adjective
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Forming a straight line.
adjective
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Bounded or formed by straight lines.
adjective
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Characterized by straight lines.
adjective
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(optics) Corrected so as not to distort straight lines.
adjective
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Relating to, consisting of, or moving in a straight line or lines.
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In a straight line.

The crankshaft and connecting rods of an engine convert the rectilinear motion of the pistons to rotary motion of the flywheel.

adjective
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(geometry, art) Formed from straight lines.
adjective
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Alternative Forms

Alternative Form of rectilinear - rectilineal

Origin of rectilinear

  • From Late Latin rēctilīneus Latin rēctus right reg- in Indo-European roots Latin līnea line line1

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

  • From post-Classical Latin; either from rectilÄ«neāris or from rectilÄ«neus (whence rectiline) + -ar, in both cases ultimately deriving from rectus (“straight") + lÄ«nea (“line").

    From Wiktionary

Rectilinear Sentence Examples

  • The species of Linnaeus were supposed to represent a series of steps in a scale of ascending complexity, and it was thought possible thus to arrange the animal kingdom in a single series - the orders within the classes succeeding one another in regular gradation, and the classes succeeding one another in a similar rectilinear progression.

  • To find the area of any rectilinear figure, various methods are available.

  • Another question to which he devoted much attention was that of obtaining rectilinear motion by linkage.

  • Associated with these irregular escarpments are occasional rectilinear ridges, the work of extensive erosion on monoclinal structures, of whick Echo Cliffs, east of the Painted Desert (so called from its manycoloured sandstones and clays), is a good example.

  • With the renewal of uplift by which the earlier cycle of erosion was interrupted and the present cycle introduced, inequalities of surface due to renewed faulting were again introduced; these still appear as cliffs, of more nearly rectilinear front than the retreating escarpments formed in the previous cycle.

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