EQUATOR

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An imaginary line around the Earth forming the great circle that is equidistant from the north and south poles

Example:

the equator is the boundary between the northern and southern hemispheres

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Hypernyms ("equator" is a kind of...):

great circle (a circular line on the surface of a sphere formed by intersecting it with a plane passing through the center)

Derivation:

equatorial (of or existing at or near the geographic equator)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A circle dividing a sphere or other surface into two usually equal and symmetrical parts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Hypernyms ("equator" is a kind of...):

circle (ellipse in which the two axes are of equal length; a plane curve generated by one point moving at a constant distance from a fixed point)

Derivation:

equate (make equal, uniform, corresponding, or matching)

equatorial (of or relating to or at an equator)

Credits

Context examples:

An imaginary great circle on the surface of a heavenly body passing through the poles at right angles to the equator.

(Longitude, NCI Thesaurus)

The study, led by Betts and OSU's Christopher Wolf, also suggests that the closer a forest is to the equator, the more sensitive its wildlife species are to fragmentation.

(Forest fragmentation hits wildlife hardest in the tropics, National Science Foundation)

The first event originated in the southern hemisphere, and the second and third events occurred near the equator.

(NASA's OSIRIS-REx Explains Bennu Mystery Particles, NASA)

It is fairly spherical, has a ridge along its equator and at least one large crater.

(Biggest Asteroid Ever Detected Flies Past Earth, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

It most commonly occurs in children living within 15 degrees of the equator.

(Endomyocardial Fibrosis, NCI Thesaurus)

Countries close to the equator typically see average temperatures of around 20-30 degrees Celsius and air humidity of around 60-95 per cent — ideal conditions for indoor mould to grow.

(Smoother walls healthier for lungs, SciDev.Net)

For more than 30 million years after dinosaurs first appeared, they remained inexplicably rare near the equator, where only a few small-bodied meat-eating dinosaurs made a living.

(Big dinosaurs steered clear of the tropics, NSF)

The region that circles the Earth, near the equator, where the trade winds of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres come together.

(Intertropical Convergence Zone, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)

High-resolution images of the Pluto-facing hemisphere of Charon, reveal details of a belt of fractures and canyons just north of the moon’s equator.

(Pluto’s Big Moon Charon Reveals a Colorful and Violent History, NASA)

Over the Yangtze basin in China, north India and Polynesian islands south of the equator, rainfall is decreasing.